Life could
be viewed as a car ride to an unknown destination. Rather the destination is
known, it’s death, but no one knows “what” is there waiting for us, or where
“there” is. We don’t even know “when” we’ll get there, “how” we will arrive, or
“why” we were going there in the first place. Life is a car ride to death, but
all we know, and are aware of, and experience is the car ride. We may change
the model, or the options of the car. There’s the music on the radio, the temperature
of the climate control, the passengers in the car. There are the snacks
available, the view out of the windows. There are other drivers sharing the
road with us, or changing their routes and never being seen by us again. There
are other drivers driving their cars with their own car options, also heading
for the same destination but choosing their own options for the road. None of
us know what’s at death, or after it. None of us know what the afterlife is.
All we know is that we are all heading there. No one seems to look at death as,
someone else, getting to the destination first. No one considers death as the
fastest driver winning the race, or the smartest driver taking the fastest
route, or the easiest.
During the
ride we have options. We can get impatient, “why aren't we there yet?” Or we
can enjoy the ride for all it's worth “we'll get there when we get there.” The
driver in front of us is driving slowly and holding everything up, “come on
we're in a rush here, we have things to do!” Or the driver in front is slowing
us down and giving us a chance to enjoy the trip a little longer, “pass me the
chips and turn up the music please.” The destination's the same and all of us
will end up there sooner or later, but the ride can be very different. We can
even ignore the ride and not pay attention to it at all; focusing instead on
the fun we are having until suddenly we’re there. You may say “the car is
driving through a dull industrial neighborhood and there's nothing for us to
look at.” We can look at the map and change the route if we don't enjoy the
“dull” neighborhood. The only reason we keep driving through the “dull”
neighborhood is because of the fear that changing the route might bring us to a
“bad” neighborhood. The fear of the “bad” neighborhood is preventing us from
changing to a highway through a beautiful fall forest. We keep driving on a
road we never really enjoyed, and certainly don't enjoy now, but it's familiar.
We've settled for the familiar, it's safer than the possibly horrible unknown.
For the sake of this safer joyless familiarity we're willing to give up the
possibility of an exciting, awesome, epic unknown. Not to worry, either way the
car is still getting to the destination. The end is the same, but what kind of
ride did we have?
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