Trebuchet 19 Aug 2018

This morning a word popped up in my mind: Trebuchet. Instantly I realized it is a French name. Not being able to identify the word I looked it up in Google. Google has a better memory than I do have. That is what happens when millions of people contribute to the information.

History

I had expected to find the name of a living person. Not even a part of the guess was correct. The 'living' was not up to date. The good or bad man - Google knows perhaps - may have died hundreds of years back. Let us stop my fantasy.

No, no, no! Actually Google didn't know the good old fellow. A Trebuchet turned out to be an ancient weapon of war. It is a kind of stone thrower. And it was not even a French invention. The tool has been invented in China. Little by little over the centuries it made a voyage to the west. Perhaps some German engineer had upgraded the machine with a counterweight.

Intention and failure

The man powered machine could throw stones of 30 kg and hit targets at 300 meters distance.
Quite impressive for a medieval instrument of war.

The Trebuchet was intended to destroy walls around fortifications. Unfortunately it was not effective for that purpose. The bullet descended too steep.

Walls around our hearts

Many persons - I always count myself among the bad ones - have built walls around their hearts. Walls to protect our inner inhabitants. Fear, Shame, Disappointment, Revenge, Bitterness. You name it and it may live there locked up in our hearts. Sometimes we are aware and at other times we are not.

The problem with walls is that no-one has access to the treasure that is protected. Unfortunately the good things like Love and Kindness also can not flow out of the fortification.

Like the Trebuchet

Very few instruments appear to be effective in braking down the walls around our hearts.

I believe: walls can be torn down little by little when we desire such and make effort.

Earthquakes can do the job too. But then nothing else than rubble is left over.