Journey

WAYNE’S WORDS
Volume 3 Number 23
Journey

NO, I am not about to whip out the lyrics to Faithfully, Open Arms or even Separate Ways. That would be nice to see, but you can go look them up yourself. Hell, pull out an old cassette tape, if you want.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (and, of course, Aerosmith) told us “Life is a Journey, Not a Destination…” I think we can all pretty much agree that this is a true statement. But this journey sometimes seems to take a lot out of us. And for the majority of us, this journey we call life is not always a Sunday ride through the country.

There are bumps, potholes, detours, washed-out bridges, seedy motels, unscrupulous characters, overpriced gas stations and bad parts of town on this journey. It is actually amazing that everyone just doesn’t take the next exit and leave. Sadly, some do. Some stay forever in that seedy motel, because the weather got bad. Some just drive into a bridge abutment and end their journey all together.

It is those of us who aren’t afraid of all of the aforementioned travel pitfalls that ultimately realize how great the journey is and was regardless of the snags along the way. Some of the problems we encounter are our own fault. We often don’t keep our vehicle (our mind) properly maintained. Many of us disregard the warning signs, orange barrels and even the dude at the side of the road flapping a flag at us.

Sure there are hard times during our travels, but what about all of the scenic by-ways, friendly passers-by, green lights, sunsets and rainbows that we are able to experience. What about the laughter of children, the acts of kindness and roadside farmers’ markets we come across. These things all make the journey worthwhile.

With all of that being said, I would like to disagree with old Ralphy Boy. Well, less disagree and more expand upon what he said. I do believe in the journey versus destination idea on a general level. I think that life is more accurately described as a series of legs on the journey and multiple destinations.

We all hated the “car vacations” when Dad just wanted to drive straight through. “Let’s just get there,” he said. Well, Dad had one destination in mind while we were sitting in the back seat watching all the other cool destinations whiz by our very eyes. Amusement parks, restaurants with giant cowboys on top, zoos and other cool stuff became pinpoints of missed opportunity to our young, wanting eyes.

Very few people embark upon life’s journey and ride straight through to death. On our life journey we will stop many times at many different destinations. That doesn’t mean, however that we stop growing. If you stop at a destination of marriage and family you (hopefully) end up taking those people with you on the next leg of your overall journey. Friends, co-workers, clients, shrinks, clerks at a store one frequents, and other people we meet also become voyagers with us on our grand journey, in full or in part.

[quick side note] How do we travel on this proverbial journey? I would have to say we are all on motorcycles. We are each in charge of our own journey, but as people join and leave us for any given leg they don’t jump on with you – the ride along side. Maybe we are actually all in tractor-trailers. How else would we carry all of our crap? Ah, let’s stick with the motorcycle version… it’s cooler.

Today 6,787,381,261 people are either on a leg of their journey or at one of their destinations. Many of them are on an extraordinarily tough leg of their journey with only the faintest clues of what their next destination might be. They are leaving their last destination that may have seemed a wonderful place at one point in time, but has recently turned into one of those bad parts of town out of which they absolutely had to pull themselves.

When leaving any of your destinations (whether people come with you or stay behind) you have to figure out what you learned while you were there – good AND bad. As you don your leathers and straddle your iron horse, you have things to think about and ponder. The time at your last destination may have taught you “what your priorities are in life, what you do and don’t want out of life and what your strengths and weaknesses are.”

That is what is known as baggage. We all have it and, even though the connotation is bad, there is baggage that is good. From both adversity and fortune grows strength. You just have to learn from the situations in which you found yourself at your last destination. Even if you have no clear idea of your next destination, you have to be able to point your handlebars down the correct road, the road of love, honesty, loyalty, sincerity and personal responsibility. If you stay on that road you will also find reverence, hope, thrift, charity, moderation, hard work, courage, gratitude and – of course – friendship.

Staying on that road, you will find that the ride is smoother, the weather is nicer, the gas is cheaper and true friendship is more abundant. As I have already said, in all actuality, we never really know where our next destination is. We have a feeling of where we would like to go, but regardless of our intentions, weather conditions change, bridges wash out and sometimes you even hit a toll road. Sometimes that bad stuff happens within us; sometimes it is external. It is our job to figure out how to deal with it and how to (hopefully) learn from it. That is the journey.

An old Chinese Proverb says: “To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.”

So, as you embark on the next leg of your journey: ride safe, be true and may the sun and the wind always be at your back.

Until Next Time,

Wayne

PS Here a couple of quotes I love, but didn’t use:

“All of life is a journey – which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to is up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how happy we are when we get there.” – Anonymous

“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it.” William Feather

For you.