Thesis: The same path taken will not lead to the same destination

This thesis is important to me. It is a commentary on our humanity and both our common and disparate journeys. In our collective sojourns not everyone will arrive at the same destination even though the same path was taken. Is this statement altruistic or naïve? I think this comment is about humanity at its best. Conformity is not an answer but a compromise. Mediocrity is another outcome of taking the same path with the expectation of arriving at the same destination. The same path will not lead to the same destination, and for one, I am thankful.

My perspective about the path. The metaphor here is life. We often compare and contrast life with being a journey. In his essay “The World as I see it” by Einstein (1931) he stated,”How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn, for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it.” (This is a marvelous essay by the way!) Even a short sojourn is still a life. Life for each person is an experience unto itself. I shall not be another person and they shall not be me. Even though the path I tread on stones worn smooth by the passage of time, I shall not reach the same destination as those many others who came along this way headed for the same destination.

The Path. As a journey or by definition: “an act of traveling from one place to another”. This analogy merits comment. Going from one point to another. Life is that, “We may never pass this way again” (Lobban-Bean, Conte, Bhattacharya, & Seals, 1973) to quote from the pop song. To travel can be by conformity when we go with others, or like Frost (1920) when we have chosen a different fork in the path, even though we may take the same fork he did, we may arrive at a different destination. Often we do travel the same path to reach the same destination and we do. All of us disembark from some variety of transportation having come from the same starting point and arriving at the same destination… but none of us takes the same path.

The path as a route. This statement implies there is a destination and a way to get there. The path may be so well known as to be called a route. I have known many of the great travel routes of the United States by airplane and automobile. From my earliest youth we traveled on between California and Colorado on the highways & interstates. I recall many of the journeys for one reason or another. One trip was a rite of passage I made at the age of 16 that resonates throughout my travel no matter the path. I am convinced there is a certain hallmark journey for all of us. The memory of that path lingers as a guidepost in our travels. Not everyone who has traveled the path I have will arrive at the same destination.

Not everyone who takes the same path takes it as the same time or reason although the path may have a destination. Some may never reach the destination they had in mind. Some people lose their way, others find a different ways, still others, overcome by fear, doubt or regret, never even start on a path to a destination. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step…” said Lao Tzu the founder of Taoism (n.d.). I believe that taking a path constitutes a journey.

The naysayers and critics counter my thesis with: “Who cares? Why does it matter? Why does a path mean there is a journey? Two points joined by a path, a route, or a road between a beginning and destination? Why make more of the fact that if two of us go exactly the same way, at the same time, over the same path will arrive at the same destination? Why should I take the time to think about it? You live next door to me, we take the same drive to work every day and we get there. We take our dogs out for a walk in the park on the same path and we get back to our houses? Should it mean more than that? The retort that traveling on the same path to the same destination should hold the same result for all who travel that path seems simple enough… Should it matter? Should we ascribe the journey no more than an afterthought? We do what we do! Get over yourself! These comments do not my journey, I give them no merit.

I stand in disagreement. I think there is more to any path than just a mindless obligation. Compromise and mediocrity are not scruples, they are rife with the ordinary and a failure to elevate the mundane to the sublime. Not everyone will arrive at the same destination if they take the same path. The experience of mankind, with each sentient soul, will naturally result in a different journey. I look forward to every journey.

References:

Einstein, A. (1931). The World as I see it. Forum and Century, vol. 84, pp. 193-194. New York: Simon & Schuster

Frost, R. (1920). The Road Not Taken. Mountain Interval, pp.75. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Tzu, L. (n.d). Lao Tzu > Quotes > Quoteable Quote. GoodReads
Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21535-the-journey-of-a-thousand-miles-begins-with-a-single-step

Lobban-Bean,W., Conte,R.A., Bhattacharya,S. Seals,J. (1973). We may never pass this way again. Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group. New York.