Robert Frost & Detours

I have just returned home from a great car journey. I drove 567 miles in one day from Douglas to Atlanta to Gainesville and then back to Douglas and all without friends or family to keep me company. The CD player was full of great music the cruise control was working so I really didnt have to do anything but mind my speed, steer carefully and not spill my coffee.

I take great pleasure in these drives. Driving gives me time to think, time to pray and time to work out the cobwebs in my head. Most people hate being in the car alone for 8 hours but those people don't have 4 children nor do they work in a plant with 800 other people. :)

This particular trip was taken so I could have time to make some big career choices. I was reflecting on my possibilities when suddenly I rounded a corner and saw flashing red and yellow lights pointing me to a detour. The lights and signs pointed me down a road I had never noticed in 4 years of driving this route. I was worried that I would get lost or heaven forbid, loose a few precious minutes from my well planned schedule. But as I traveled this detour, I saw some beautiful Antibellum homes that had been less than 500 yards off the main road for years and in all the times I had passed this way I did not get to see them. It really reminded me of Robert Frost. I was suddenly on 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
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

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.

Frost's poem has always been a favorite of mine, I am so thankful to have a mother that taught literature and exposed me to poetry. I can honestly say that the older I get, the more I appriciate the lessons and the more truth I find in them. My life has been so full of choices and roads not taken, that I have given this poem more thought than many.

I have found when discussing this with others that many people seem to interpret this poem as a tribute to the road less traveled, as an endorsement of the decision to plow new ground, to explore new territory, to try or to create something new. And, I admit, this is a viable interpretation of the poem. However, to me the emphasis is on the road not taken, as opposed to the one less taken. In fact, the poem is titled "The Road Not Taken." This is a poem about a common struggle we all face in life: the inability to do two mutually exclusive things. Frost says he wants to travel both roads, but he "cannot and be one traveler."

So after a look down the road he won't take, he sets out on the other. Of course he keeps the first for another day. "Yet," he says, "knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted that I'd ever be back."

What a telling line! Haven't you felt this? I have. My list of roads not taken is long. And depending on how today's meeting went, I might add another missed road.

At various stages in my childhood, I wanted be a general and drive tanks, to fight fires, to sing and play an instrument for a living, and of course at one time I wanted to become a truck driver. I changed college majors more than most people change socks. All in hopes of finding the right major for the dream job.

As most of you know with the exception of some brief trials and errors, I've spent the majority of my working life in the Poultry Industry. And I'm proud of what I do, but I still dream of flying to the moon or cracking some great mystery from history or getting the chance to preach and teach in front of thousands. (I need more readers ha-ha)

Another road missed deals with location. I have spent my whole life in Georgia, but I still dream of living in Beverly Hills, or Paris, or Scotland, or about a dozen other places.

Frost's poem reminds us that one rarely returns to roads not taken. That's why, especially at midlife, it's so dangerous to keep putting things off that we consider truly important. Temporary choices have a way of becoming permanent ones, and today's procrastinations are tomorrow's regrets. As a father of four rapidly growing children I know how precious a few missed moments can be.

And yet, like it or not, we can't take all the roads we want to in life. Frost's words also remind us that we really are one traveler, and trying to choose everything in life will leave us just as empty as choosing the wrong thing.

I have some huge choices to make over the next 3 months. But whatever road I take, Frost's words will inspire me. If I hit a detour, his wisdom will comfort me. And at the end of my journey I can reflect on my relationships, poetry, literature, family, friends and experiences and I am certain I will be thankful for the VIEW FROM MY WINDOW.