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

-Excerpt from Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"

So many decisions, so little time. So many ways we could go... all with their advantages, all with their advocates... all with their dilemma's. In the end... how do we know which way is right... what opportunities are left... and which way is best?

Unfortunately... the path of life cannot be re-walked... we can only walk with advice, walk with our friends or walk alone... and with experience we see what each path holds for us and hope for the best. The adventures, the surprises and at times, the downfalls.

When it comes down to the decisions which will decide our lives. Let our hearts guide us... take us where we want to go... don't be guided by the bright lights, by the signs... or by the breath and wind of our peers. Our hearts, our souls will take us to their place... hopefully lead us not to temptation... but deliver us from evil.

How do we be objective with our decisions... with our careers, our friendships, our families, our loves, and our personal lives... How do we prioritize? How do we find the path that is in the best interest of all of the above...? The reality, is there never is a best choice that will provide all the desired outcomes... just like the baccarat table will never just be dealer... it will never just be player... it's knowing when we've lost... knowing when we're ahead... and seeing the bright side of things.

With decisions... its best for us to ignore the surroundings... ignore the paths... ignore the lights... ignore the guide... and follow what guides us best... our hearts. Even we lie to ourselves... but it is rare we beat fate... it is rare we beat probability... and in the end, the house will win... and the outcome will play as it should. It's just our goal to ensure we're reducing our losses and make the best of it.

Life has its ups and downs... often more downs than ups... but we need to make the best of it... cherish our successes... and see how our decisions are ours... be grateful, we've done the best we could for ourselves...

Familiarity.

“Familiarity breeds contempt. How accurate that is. The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it." - Mark Twain

Familiarity... we take advantage of what is familiar. Find it tedious, boring, and often annoying. The same old routine, day in day out... little do we know what its like to be lost... for it to all be gone. What is routine today may not have been routine a year a go... a decade ago, a century ago. Even for us, from school to work... from work to retirement. Our city streets, our buildings, what does that familiarity mean for us.

Look at our streets and look at the history they carry... the buildings from the century past, the memories and those who lived in that time, how what exists now is so different, so much more dramatic, so confusing. How telephones went from prestigious to the norm, then to cordless phones, cellular phones, e-mail, Blackberry's; the world is ever changing; the world a decade from now will be a different one. And it will be one less personal than last decade. Where the norm will be your own... and the norm will be your self driven, narrow minded, idealistic world.

The key is to learn to appreciate our environment. Take a look around us and realize, we will never know a place better than home. A different neighborhood, a different city, a different country... where you don't know the people, the houses... the sights, the sounds the smells. Just imagine. Think of the bus routes, the roads, the highways... the memories. Another city is a world apart. Imagine another country. To not know the restaurants, the menus, the traditions... we take for granted all the knowledge we've accumulated about the place we live and the things which surround us.

Communication is something we take for granted. The language we share, the culture we share, all the things we have in common yet we select the things which are different to discriminate against each other. Instead of embracing our differences, we begin to hate them... and we find the norms and the familiarity lackluster... what then do we take value in.

We need to embrace the past, both the world's and our own... recognize history and what it's taught us. Recognize our role in the present and for the future. Be thankful for what we have and the knowledge we are blessed with. Be blessed with understanding, with the ability to move freely, to make decisions, and be thankful you live in a place where you can belong. Familiarity breeds contempt, but what it should breed is thanks, for what does not change cannot hurt us, what does not change cannot surprise us, and what does not change cannot go wrong.

There's no place like home.