Thursday, March 09, 2006
The Road Not Taken
I did something really, really silly this morning, but because I wanted to, and because I believed in 'Carpe Diem', it doesn't matter what the outcome ultimately was.
Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken
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; 5
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. 15
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.
The Dead Poets Society has been a very inspiring movie, and I still attempt to digest the numerous morsels of information and truths, ideals and ideas. Whilst they simmer and brew inside my head, the create little epiphanies.
On of the more prominent quotes that the movie used was the last line of that poem.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."It's a very deep and profound poem. I feel that the path less travelled could refer to several metaphorical paths, but most prominently, I feel that it refers to paths inside one's minds. Actions that one is prone to repeat, things that one will instinctively do out of habit.
Sometimes, it is important to break out of that cast, for the path most often travelled might not be the best path, jsut that there will be less rocks and grass scattered along.
Are we, as humans, creatures of habit?
It might appear so, and it might thus be true, but I don't necessarily concur that it is the only possibility. Heaven's bemoan, but we humans have the choice to live outside our habits.
Just remember, just because it's easy to choose the well trodden path, just because it is hard to break off from convention, or just because it's hard to step outside conmfort zones, does not imply that it is immpossible.
Gavin
pondered @ 20:13
