The bloodiest single day in American soil didn’t happen on 9/11 and it wasn’t at the bombing at Pearl Harbor. It occurred across a rolling piece of farmland in northern Maryland, known today as Antietam National Battlefield.

Perhaps the most iconic location at Antietam is Burnside’s Bridge. For more than three hours, General Ambrose Burnside repeatedly sent his men to attack a fortified position across a narrow bridge against a much smaller force. His stubbornness to reconsider his tactics resulted in hundreds of deaths and many more wounded.

Stubbornness is a damaging human trait, especially when it comes to relationships. In today’s age of social media, it’s easier than ever to get on the wrong side of someone.

The bridge you burn today might be a bridge you need to cross tomorrow...

In this episode of Trailing Thoughts, I tie together lessons from history to my own experiences in the turf industry, including addressing one of the bridges I burned down years ago, and the steps I took to rebuild it.

Standing in the middle of Burnside’s Bridge, I end this episode with a message of hope: as long as both sides are willing to meet in the middle, then there isn’t a bridge out there that can’t be rebuilt.