A Road Less Traveled

Hi folks, welcome to today's blog. Come on in and find a comfy place to sit! My name is Wayne and I’ll be your host today as we pursue a road less traveled.

I love to read. I read all kinds of things; short stories, novels, essays, blogs, news, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc. In fact, I’ll read just about anything, but most of all I enjoy reading about ideas, especially those ideas at the edge of human experience and understanding. Sometimes, I look back to see how we got to the place we’re at and wonder what would have happened if we’d taken another route.

Today we’re going to spend a little time with one of those roads less traveled. I want to explore further the idea of eternal existence.

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

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 on to 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—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

One of my favorite poems and dearly loved by many around the world especially matches my mood today. I have always assumed that this poem was about Mr. Frost’s nostalgic rumination over what might have been if he made different decisions in life. I was wrong. In fact, Frost wrote this poem to tease his friend, critic Edward Thomas, who accompanied him often on hour-long walks through the English countryside. Evidently Thomas had trouble choosing which path to take when they came upon a divergence of ways and would often later regret not taking the other path thinking it might have been a better walk. David Orr writes in depth of this in his essay entitled, “The Road Not Taken: The Poem Everyone Loves and Everyone Gets Wrong” which is posted at poets.org.

When I think of my life, where I came from, and where I am now, I often wonder “what if”. It’s almost as if I see my life’s path spread out before me in a long zig-zag route much like a line representing an old country road on a map. Each bend in the path represents a time when I chose between alternate possibilities and each one made a huge difference in where I ended up in the end. And now I wonder, even as did Mr. Thomas, what would that path look like if I had chosen differently at each of those bends? Quickly, I realize that, considering the countless number of decision points I’ve passed through and the fact that every possible path continuing on from every decision point also leads to countless numbers of additional branches until the accumulation of lines representing all possible life paths blends together in a solid black patch. I can no longer follow the direction of any individual path. Then the patch begins to sort itself out, opening up gradually to individual lines again until, as each line comes to an end, there are only a few paths left and those few dwindle to none. All of my possible lives have come to an end. My life is no more.

But, is that all there is?

I’m convinced there’s more than this. Perhaps it’s a matter of faith. Either I am or I am not. The fact that I’m speaking my thoughts here and now convinces me that I am. Some will say that is blasphemy, that only God is, and that I may be in the process of becoming. To me, that’s just tiptoeing around to avoid insulting God. I prefer to, as Thomas Jefferson said “Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

The question is did I exist before I was born and will I still exist after I die? Does it even make sense to talk about past, present, and future in terms of existence outside the bounds of this present reality? I am not a materialist, i.e., one who believes in nothing beyond matter, energy, and their interaction. It seems to me that the “I” in I am, my soul, exists within my physical body but does not depend on that body for its existence. To the contrary, my soul interjected into this four dimensional perspective we call reality gives form to the body and mind that houses me. Take away the soul and the body is no more. Take away the body and the soul exists still.

Some say, and this makes sense to me, that the soul is a small piece, a spark if you will, of God. I can see where that description can be adopted based on a reading of Genesis 2:7 (New International Reader's Version). “Then the Lord God formed a man. He made him out of the dust of the ground. God breathed the breath of life into him. And the man became a living person.”

I’ve said all of this to come to this point. I believe that the real me existed before the start of life in this realm and the real me will go on once I finish here. In a sense, from this earthly viewpoint, I have always been and I will always be. The fault in this reasoning lies, I think, in this. Time is only a part of this world/ universe. It began at the creation event and it will cease at the annihilation event (if one exists). I think before I was born I existed outside of time and I will return to that existence after this life. In the understanding of this world then I have an eternal existence. From the view of that higher realm it is enough to say “I am”.

Thanks for stopping by folks. Please come again and we’ll look elsewhere in this wonderful world of ideas. As always, may God bless you and yours!