Friday, April 24, 2009

The Way

The problem with trying to establish The Way is that going any way at all depends on where a person is and where that person wishes to go. Is there but one road, one bridge, one tunnel, suitable to the goals of each and every person? Can one road, one bridge, one tunnel get each and every person from where they are to where they wish to go? To suppose such for ordinary travel is blatantly absurd, as we can’t all be and aren’t all in one and the same place and heading for one and the same destination.

And yet, for the vastly more complex process of traveling from birth to death, there persists this idea that there can be only one Way. And while the case stated may suggest we all start from the same point and end at the same point, it isn’t nearly that simple. None of us share the same schedule, nor are we each blessed with precisely the same mental, physical, spiritual, educational, political and material resources for the journey—not at the start, not during the journey, and not at the end. No one life can be lived in exactly the same way as another, and no one Way will ever be sufficient to handle all the traffic.

Human history has demonstrated this more times than any sane person would care to count. Yet these demonstrations weigh like feathers on the consciences of those who insist that there is one Way and one Way only.  

So what is The Way? Depends…do you want get through life quick or take the scenic route?

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