A young man who just graduated from college was traveling and stopped at an intersection. He asked an elderly man, walking nearby "Where does this road take me?" The elderly man asked, "Where do you want to go?" The young man replied, "I don't know." The elderly man said, "Go ahead and take any road. What difference does it make?"
Here's the way I see it: If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it with amazing accuracy. Bill Copeland said it best, "The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score."
I used to adore Pogo, a comic strip possum who lived in a swamp and appeared in European newspapers.
One day, he and his best friend, Albert Alligator, were fishing in a beat up boat in the swamp. Pogo told Albert, "If you don't know where you're goin', you will likely end up somewheres else."
One of the first classes I followed at university included the following exercise:
"Observe 1 minute"
Go ahead, dear readers, do this right now.
You can spare one minute of your life now can you? :)
After a minute, answer this question: what did you see?
Off course every student came up with something else, since it hadn't been clear what we were supposed to be observing. This was a lesson in scientific research: always be as specific as you can or you won't be observing anything, let alone researching something.
Apart from the intended message, I liked the part in which everyone had so attentively been observing a moment in time that otherwise wouldn't have really been noticed. While on our way, we often forget where we are now. We forget today is a gift (that's why we call it the present :)) We forget to cherish the steps on the road. Or as an eastern wisdom tells us: Tao is the path. We forget to enjoy a moment in time as unique, as it will never exist again after. I've recently been told the Japanese call this: Ichi go ichi e.
Some translate such wisdom to reckless living and call it: seizing the day. Looking at that more closely; they often are even less living in the moment than many, as they wash their own consciousness away by whatever means necessary.
It doesn't mean you're goalless. After all: when you're going no where, you're not moving. That young man at the intersection did have to make a choice or he would have stood still till the end of his days. You can only enjoy every step on your path, when you chose to walk it. When you're walking your path, you're going somewhere. Whether you had consciously made that destination your goal or not. In fact: one would have expected the older man in the story to have gathered that wisdom in his life, but perhaps he felt no need to share this in order to not spoil the young man's journey of discovery:rolleyes:
In other words, I think it means; dream, wish, hope, make plans and set goals, but also: just "be". And let that be you. Enjoy every step of your way; consciously feel, live, learn and love. And don't forget that sometimes on your way to a dream, you get lost and find a better one :)
[QUOTE=Brandye;276437]I used to adore Pogo, a comic strip possum who lived in a swamp and appeared in European newspapers.
One day, he and his best friend, Albert Alligator, were fishing in a beat up boat in the swamp. Pogo told Albert, "If you don't know where you're goin', you will likely end up somewheres else."[/QUOTE]
Pogo was an American classic. There was so much wisdom in that strip.