If you could do it...
Illustration
If you could do it, I suppose it would be a good idea to live your life in a straight line --
starting, say, in the Dark Wood of Error, and proceeding by logical steps through Hell
and Purgatory and into Heaven. Or you could take the King's Highway past appropriately
named dangers, toils, and snares, and finally cross the River of Death and enter the
Celestial City. But that is not the way I have done it, so far. I am a pilgrim, but my
pilgrimage has been wandering and unmarked. Often what has looked like a straight line
to me has been a circle or a doubling back. I have been in the Dark Wood of Error any
number of times. I have known something of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, but not always
in that order. The names of many snares and dangers have been made known to me, but I
have seen them only in looking back. Often I have not known where I was going until I
was already there. I have had my share of desires and goals, but my life has come to me
or I have gone to it mainly by way of mistakes and surprises. Often I have received better
than I have deserved. Often my fairest hopes have rested on bad mistakes. I am an
ignorant pilgrim, crossing a dark valley. And yet for a long time, looking back, I have
been unable to shake off the feeling that I have been led -- make of that what you
will.
(From Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow [New York: Counterpoint, 2000], p. 133)
(From Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow [New York: Counterpoint, 2000], p. 133)
