This is a telephone pole on Route 120 near East Plainfield, NH. I noticed it Monday on my drive to work – it hasn’t changed all week. You’d think that a sight like this would generate some attention from repairpeople. But apparently it’s okay; just put up a couple of warning cones and I guess everything will work itself out eventually.
If you drive by this a couple of times a day for a week, you start to think about things. There are plenty of products, or companies for that matter, that are broken, yet somehow still function. Or relationships – you can imagine a relationship that is broken in two yet still survives. It could stay this way for a long time. People might look at it funny every once in a while, but eventually it too fades into the background and looks normal. But sooner or later the ground will erode, or the supports will rot, or the weight of the ice on the lines will be too much to bear, or another truck will smash into it, and then you notice it’s broken for real – usually observed with a loss of electricity, or a loss of communication lines.
Based on this photo, I’d say it’s hard to tell when something is broken yet functioning vs. broken for real. You put up your warning cones, you call the repairpeople, and you wait to see what happens.
February 15, 2006