feng shui and the iron horse

There is a feng shui story —

About Chinese workers on the US railroad when the rail road was first being built to stretch across the United States.

Culturally, Chinese people are pretty up on feng shui, and when Chinese workers were hired to work on a railroad splitting the United States in two, some of them mentioned to their bosses it was not a good idea.

See, in terms of feng shui, splitting a country in two with a giant metal spike is not a good idea.

So the workers said, Hey, Rail Road Moguls, you know in feng shui terms, this will create a divided nation.

And the Rail Road Moguls said, Hey, Chinese Guys, we aren’t paying you for feng shui advice, we are paying you to swing that hammer.

So the workers shrugged, either because they needed the paycheck or because the rail road mogul guys were such assholes, why save them? And swung that hammer.

And a great big shining line of metal was built that divided this nation in two.

And the nation has been divided in two ever since.