Long before there were memes and mic drops, people collected anecdotes and aphorisms to jazz up public speeches. We’ve all heard the one about “Stone Soup” and “The Blind Man and the Elephant.” Here in Hawaii the “We’re All in the Same Canoe” metaphor and the old “Crabs in the Bucket” warning are worn with use.

One of the favorites that made the rounds in the ’80s, particularly in speeches to mark the groundbreaking of building projects, went like this:

Let me tell you the story of a stranger to a small village. He saw three men working with brick and mortar. He asked the first man, “Sir, what are you doing?” The first man answered sharply, “Can’t you see? I’m working with brick and mortar!” Then the stranger asked the second man, who looked up and said, “I’m building a wall.” The stranger then walked on to the third man and asked, “And sir, what are YOU doing?” The third man looked up with a smile on his face and said, “Sir, I am building a cathedral!”

The point of the story, of course, is to think beyond the mechanics of the daily grind, to lift one’s aspirations to a place of grandeur and spiritualism, to envision an end-goal beyond the stated purpose of the project and instead imagine its highest purpose.

That story was fitting in the Big ’80s, the era of soaring ambition and opulent dreams.

As time passed we learned that in order to build a cathedral, the bricklayer had better concentrate on bricks. Aspirations are fine, but they are built upon hard, tedious work and diligent, rigorous planning.

A long introduction like that clearly leads to a mention of the rail project, doesn’t it?

Oahu’s rail is the biggest, costliest example of thinking big without paying attention to specifically how the grandeur is going to be achieved. The first cars are here, designed in a color palette to reflect a sunny Hawaii day, but on the bricks-and-mortar level, no one has figured out the whole flood plain, electric pole, how-to-pay-for-it basics.

There are many examples of this ends-overshadow-the-means approach in Hawaii. The Honolulu Zoo should be a world-class attraction in the crown jewel of Hawaii’s tourism industry – yet the boss’s office seems to have a revolving door, and many exhibits are shut down for lack of repair.

Waikiki Natatorium? That’s a horrible example of the potential of a higher purpose with no practical way to make it happen.

Kakaako is becoming a gleaming metropolis while not much attention has been given to the bricks-and-mortar of the aging sewage system underneath all the rising towers.

The list goes on. There’s a crucial balance to be struck between vaulted dreams and the drudgery of practicality, feasibility and possibility. When that third guy’s cathedral came crashing down, the grumpy first guy no doubt turned to him and said, “Stupid, you should have been paying attention to the bricks!”

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@ staradvertiser.com.