Two men worked on a roadway, paving a path soon to be inundated with traffic.

They toiled away diligently in silence and sweating in the uncharacteristically blistering heat, given the time of year. And although the sun was already beginning to set, the heat seemed to keep increasing the more they accomplished and the further along they got.

In their effort to focus on the task at hand, neither had bothered to look very much at where the path led.

They just wanted to do a good job and get paid.

Finally, overcome with exhaustion, one stood up. “I’m losing my footing!” he said. “DUDE! This road is starting to drop!”

“You’re right,” the other said, looking away from his work. “Is the ground caving?”

“No,” the other replied, “Holy shit, man. No wonder it’s getting so hot! Look where this road goes!”

Complying, the second man’s eyes followed to where the first was pointing – into a gaping fiery chasm – hidden in plain sight.

Their hearts sank.

They both knew what it was.

They didn’t need to say its name – or want to.

road2

They’d worked too hard for too many years believing in this job, believing that what they were doing mattered – or paralleled their values somehow. Their fathers had paved for this company. And so had their fathers before them.

After a moment of transparent shock, the second man blinked – his eyes dropping to a mid-distance gaze. He knelt back down and continued to pave the perimeter of the furtive portal into the abyss.

The other’s awe doubled at his colleague’s nonchalance.

“What are you doing? We can’t keep doing this. Or we’ll head right into it ourselves.“

“We’ll be alright!” he waved an annoyed gesture, breaking a blister as he did that had formed on his arm from proximity to the flames below.

“How do you figure?” asked the first man, quietly – astonished.

The second man remained silent and squinted. Whose voice did he hear down there? It was faint, but he knew it…

The first repeated, sternly, “How?! Now that we know, how is this okay? How do we do nothing? Much less keep work-“

The other finally broke his silence:

“Because,” he paused pensively. The familiar masculine voice was getting louder. He ignored and spoke over it, still looking down at what he was doing:

“Because we paved it with good intentions. Didn’t we?”

He looked back up.

His colleague was gone.