ROAD LESS TRAVELED
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference
Robert Frost
I am at a place where roads diverge…
I put in an old Newsboys CD while I was doing the dishes. On one of the songs, the chorus goes:
Lord, I don’t know where all this is going
Or how it all works out
Lead me to peace that is past understanding
A place beyond all doubt
The previous times I heard this I took the third line to mean something more like: Lead me to peace, a peace so complete and deep that is is beyond understanding. Implicit in this understanding is the belief that peace was the thing to get, and God was just one way to get it. I don’t know how the author intended it when he wrote the song, but it struck me that I have a completly new way of looking at it.
In the past, I took peace IN understanding and in knowing how the system of God worked. There is peace in knowing the answer to every question. A couple of years ago, an event occured which absoultly shattered my so-called understanding. My peace shattered right along with my understanding. My prayer now would be something more like “Lord, lead me to peace that does not depend on my understanding. A peace beyond all doubt.”
This is yet another example how your context influences your interpretation. It is now obvious to me that in my search for God, peace comes and goes. Peace is no longer the objective.
… a very fickle thing. Once you think you have it, it moves elsewhere. On rare occasions, it centers on something/someone.
Two weeks ago, I had Friday off from work. I woke up that morning and discovered that I had nothing better to do than go to work. After working a lot of hours, I had forgotten what it is I like to do when I am not working. This is in stark contrast to the time when I had NOTHING going on at work. I found all sorts of things to do when I wasn’t working. This wasn’t good either because work held no joy or purpose.
I had Friday off again, and I went about re-discovering what I like most about life. I went looking for happiness and happiness I found.
I was very happy meeting lunch with VJ. A happiness beyond words. This might have been pretty obvious, because the conversation wasn’t the greatest.
After leaving the lobby, I took a ride on my motorcycle out to the town of Julian. The sun was warm and the air was fresh. The feeling of riding a motorcycle on a day like this, bumping your head to the Weezer song that got stuck in your head, is also beyond words. I went skydiving last year, and it had NOTHING on this. I rode into Julian and bought a sandwich and a slice of apple crumb pie. The sun was warm, and I sat on the boardwalk eating my pie. This was also beyond words.
The best part of the day: the half hour with VJ
I would say that Friday was an outstanding success. It was an epic day in the life of Dufel.
My parents used to have a poster with all the names of God. I just realized that it missed a name - God the Engineer.
Does anyone really refer to God as the Engineer? If you believe the 6 day creationists - then things just magically appeared. I don’t see God as the Magician - just God sitting back watching his design.
Person: God, what the hell does the appendix do?
God: Works as designed!
Person: God, why does Therese like shoes so much? Why does Valancy Jane name everything? Why does my template work on Firefox and not on Internet Explorer?
God: Thats not a defect, thats a feature!
Person: God, why is there pain and suffering?
God: User error!
So, there are some well known opposites:
Good and Bad
Light and Dark
Hot and Cold
Love and Hate
Peace and War
etc…
In the natural world, we measure things. We can measure things like heat, and light. We do NOT measure things like cold and darkness because these are not physical things. Darkness is nothing more than the absense of light, and cold is nothing more that the absense of heat.
I think it is the same with Good and Evil. I think that Good is the thing that is measured, and Evil is nothing more than the lack of Good.
hmm…
Last week there was a teen-age girl on the road with a sign “Hungry Traveller”. This is quite the departure from the usual homeless guy.
She was hot. Well, she was dirty and looked pretty torn up, but you can tell beautiful people no matter what their circumstances. Plus, she had dreadlocks - yay!
Before the light turned green, I found out that she was headed up to pismo beach to visit family, and then to British Columbia. You just KNOW there is a story to be heard there.
Anyways, I just thought of her this morning. I wonder where she is right now, and what her story might have been if I had just stopped and asked. Life on the street cannot be a good thing for anyone, least of all somone her age. I guess all I can do is pray for her safe travels.
On a side note, I mentioned that she was pretty attractive. I wonder if I still would have cared if she was not. Perhaps it just made it easier to care. Does the Vietnam Vet on the other corner have any less of a story. Why do I care less about him? If I met an Enron executive in a dark alley, I wouldn’t be afraid because he’d be a clean guy in a nice suit. Only problem, when I turned around, i’d find my pension gone and see him walk away with millions. Apperances have more salience than objective truth. The greatest evils are often sanitized to look good, while the lesser evils are made to look bad.
Wow, strange post.
- I go against my better judgement, just to see if my judgement is indeed better.
- I wash my vehicles just to see what they look like clean
- I scream as loud as I can in my car while driving
- I drive past my exit on purpose. One day I did that and
I ended up in Temecula before deciding that was far enough.
- I actually make an extra effort to remember names.
- I post entries just like this.