The Road Not Taken

 

I had a chance this morning to reread “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (1). A small poem full of promise and words to make us wonder: Which roads did I not take, and where might they have gone?

Well, the answer that came to mind was this: too many to count and no point wondering. Every single choice for the last 60 or so years ago, maybe a few more, had alternatives. Thousands of choices. I have no idea which ones I didn’t take. I do know this: some that I took were bad choices. And where might the ones not taken gone? Who knows. And if I am truthful about it, who cares either?

We are all the sum total of the roads we took. Change one and everything shifts. For better or worse there are none not taken I would want to travel if I could, for fear of where I might be now. Consider the last stanza:

“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.”

I really don’t know if I took any that were less traveled by, but I do know that the ones I took made all the difference.

Image: http://miracleworker84.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/tworoads.jpg

1. The Poem read by the author: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2Mspukx14