In my initial foray into blogging, I chose–not very originally I admit–Robert Frost’s, “The Road Not Taken” for my inspiration. I’m not poetic at heart, nor am I even all that interested in many forms of literature However, there is so much in that poem, both in its common interpretation and its more ironic message, that serve as a backdrop for what I hope to share that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. (In reality I almost passed it up when I went through a couple dozen different spellings/forms of the the title to find one still available – my dash of limited creativity nearly crushed in an instant.) So why “The Road Well Traveled?”

First of all, I’ve had the blessing of seeing quite a few places in my life, a dozen or two countries and nearly every state in the U.S., and will likely see many more in the coming years. Because of this, I’ve begun to enjoy trying to look at the world from a slightly broader perspective. I spent much of my youth in a small country town and my college years at a fairly conservative school, but have also lived some of the world’s busiest cities and went to graduate school on the other end of the political spectrum. I’ve lived in America and Asia and have spent my time seeking out opinions and views different from my own. I intend to use this blog to write my thoughts on the world, and I hope some of them will surprise you. Even more so, I hope to solicit your opinions and hear your feedback – especially from those of you that see the world differently. “The Road Well Traveled” seemed a fitting title for one trying to see and interpret the world with a little more perspective. So what does this have to do with Robert Frost?

The commonly quoted line in the poem, “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference,” is often used as a praise to individualism. I believe there is often great benefit in “taking the road less traveled,” and though that may not be the point of the poem, that’s what most people get from it and thus it serves my purpose for this blog. We all often take the road that those if front of us took because it’s easy and honestly because it’s often right. I believe very firmly; however, in deciding our own path independent of those around us. I believe we should often question ourselves (not doubt, but question) about why we are making the choices we do, and whether or not the “road less traveled” might be the better one. I hope that this blog will serve as a forum for writer and reader alike to question our assumptions about the world and make a more informed choice about the path we ought to be traveling.

Now, to the more ironic meaning of the poem. I take no credit for this interpretation (I am no literary critic by any means), but only borrowed it from a dozen other sources I’ve read in the past. Few people notice that Frost described the roads as nearly identical. “Though as for that passing there Had worn them really about the same…And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.” There was, in fact, no road more or less traveled than the other. The poem concludes with the speaker falsely recreating the choice many years later, saying he, “took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” One could infer many things from this final twist–the speaker aggrandizing an otherwise arbitrary choice. Some of my favorite inferences, both ironic and optimistic, include:

• Perhaps the very act of choosing, even when the options appear identical, really does make all the difference. Faith is very important to me, and I hope to spend time writing about faith as a choice and perhaps the most important one we ever make.
• We often have a tendency to think that the road we are on is the only and best one for us, when in fact life could have easily taken a different direction with no major change in what really turned out to be important.
• It’s easy to think that we have become the person we are based on a series of considered decisions, but more difficult to consider that perhaps our values, ideas, and opinions could have easily been different were it not for factors beyond our control and seemingly unimportant decisions.

I’m sure there are a dozen other more educated interpretations of this poem, but the point I’d like to make with this blog is this: Life offers us many choices leading to many undoubtedly different outcomes. We should be conscience, thoughtful, and educated about the decisions we do make, and even those that we don’t. I hope this blog will help you and I both achieve that goal.