One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

We walk along a path that takes about 70 or 80 years to traverse. When we arrive, many believe the path simply comes to a dead end and we become the fodder of maggots. Some trekkers, on the other hand, see this trip as one to prepare them for yet another that follows, one that will take infinitely long to traverse.

Some people believe the world is ruled by Nature, an eternal tapestry of "laws" that never changes. Others believe Nature is a veil behind which a transcedental power hides and eventually will transform our existential panorama and its parameters to a "higher" dimension of experience.

That is to say, some people believe World is synonymous with Nature and its inherent rules. They think physical energy of various forms and formations, as they maintain or change over time - have always been around, always will be, never had a beginning and will never end. Other people, on the other hand, believe a beginning happened; Where absolute nothingness turned into existence - by a Creator, who happens now, in this "era" of universal existence, to hide behind a veil of Nature made to appear eternally self-sustaining.

Whereas no radical differences of physical appearance exist between these two groups, their differences of mindset create significant behavioral differences. One group, for example, constrain their lives only by rules instituted by men, with no compunction to break these rules when men take no notice. And, void of subservience to a higher power, their morality and that of the dog, for example, evaluate to the same standard.

Whereas those who believe a higher authority than Nature prevails, feel beholding to that power and behave accordingly. For example, this group will often congregate in prayer, move their lips in supplication, ask for blessings and steer their lives as if that eye in heaven records every detail of their existence. What passes for "prayer", for example, for this group, appears to the other group as people talking to the wall.

Another example of radical difference is their conversation. The first group will talk of nothing but that which relates to physicality or materialism. The other, in sharp contrast, you might overhear saying, "We should merit the Redemption now!", or "God bless you!", something the first group would regard as fantasy-land chatter.

It brings to mind the poem of Robert Frost, with this one exception: Those who take either of the two paths aforementioned, spurn the path taken by the other.

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 marked 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.

Again, I wish you all a happy, sweet 5772!