Road to Nowhere?
If this picture is a metaphor for life, then the meaning of the arrow is one of two things.
1. A warning
When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there
~ George Harrison
Apathy and inertia are conducive to going nowhere fast. “Nothing” is a poor starting point. Start with the end in mind, as Steven Covey said, and you might not fall off a cliff. This reminds me of the Far Side cartoon with the “LOOKOUT AHEAD” road sign.1
I went to college without a plan; graduated without a plan; drifted, jobbed, played open mic nights, suffered unrequited love, almost became a librarian2, drank tea, went to church, wrote reams of awful prose, even got married (the first time)—all without a plan! Where did all that get me?
Yep…rock bottom.
Ironically, it was accountancy that saved me. The one thing I had rejected most vehemently at uni (in my immature arrogance and naiveté, it must be said). In the midst of my years-long-slow-motion crash and burn, wondering what the ?!&# I should be doing with my life, I was doing some bookkeeping one day when the angel3 spoke to me, [sotto voce] “You could do this, like a real job.”
Well it was that, or piano tuner.
And so I looked into it, applied, and started my accountancy training (autodidactically, that is, as cheaply as possible), one terrifying exam at a time. Thank you, ACCA!
I emerged from the wreckage of my planless life as a half-qualified accountant with a plan to struggle through the second half, come hell or high water. It worked, and it was hell in there.
No more empty road signs.
2. A good
In an ideal world, which we don’t live in, this is my favorite option. Hitting the road is as full of promise and potential as it is fraught with danger and risk of abject failure, but an idea is enough to start putting in the miles.
The artist may have his colours all prepared, but he cannot produce a likeness unless he has already made up his mind what he wishes to paint
~ Seneca, Moral letters to Lucilius, Letter 71.2
If our destination is merely the next town, the risk is as close to zero as it gets: the path is well-traveled by. And once there? Civilization, institutions, bureaucracy, rent, hierarchy, and, ugh, the status quo. Is this really the place to wrestle with God or paint your masterpiece?
My great uncle Mark was interned by the Japanese during World War Two (in the same camp as Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire fans). He was a civvy—wrong place at the wrong time. He observed this of his fellow internees, literally facing months or years of going nowhere, under threat of violence:
…young drifters…emerged as men with drive and initiative who created whole projects out of nothing and had the ability to run…the veneer of civilization is stripped away and you discover the real people underneath.
Synthesis
It would be good to end on an unambiguous note, but the stations in life’s journey are as unique to each of us as are our histories. Bottom line: a road to somewhere is better than a road to nowhere.
Drifting is backbreaking and heartbreaking work with no paycheck; a safe and comfortable home is a boon, if not a fundamental human right. But to reach the new, the unknown, the familiar has to be left behind and our focus trained on the things ahead.
per ardua ad astra
The arc of my journey boils down to a simple choice—to which end will I weight my decisions: consumption or creation?
ps. No disrespect to Hügelheim, it’s a pretty village in Markgräfler Land. We just happened to be there, stopped at random looking for a walk through the vineyards.