Maps, Routes and Destinations

Back in the day, before we set off on our epic journey up north to visit parents or to the wilds of Dorset  to go on holiday, there would be much map searching and route plotting. Lists of directions and alternative routes, debates over timings and potential stop-off points. Time-consuming but satisfying, arrival wasn't the start of the adventure, the journey was a part of it.

Today, of course, we plug in the postcode of the destination into the Sat-Nav as we get into the car and just do what we are told. Turn right, turn left, slow down, speed up, stop, you've arrived. Very easy, very convenient, especially when you're sense of direction is as bad as mine.

Was reminded of all this today on holiday. Walking from the apartment up into the old town of Paphos. Got the map out, plotted the route, made some changes on the fly when we saw something we liked. Sense of achievement when we got there, lots of fun on the way - not much to see in the town itself, happy when we navigated our way back 'home'

So much of life seems to be about the destination, the end point, the journey seen as an inconvenience to be navigated as efficiently as possible. It becomes legalistic: Do this, do that, turn here, not there. You've arrived - sorry if there isn't much to see now that you are here - I can plot a quick route to the next place...

Maybe we need to place less emphasis on the destinations: career, marriage, children, retirement and more on the journey. Less legalism, more adventure, less arrival, more journey, less task, more relationship.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do Not Kill

17  “You must not murder.   We’ve begun to see that all the commands are rooted in the character of God – a God who is love. It’s easy to see that killing someone isn’t very loving! But let’s pause for a moment to ask why? Love, the Bible tells us, ‘does not insist on its own way’ – it gives choice. Put simply, death precludes choice – it steals that which is at the heart of love – it is the most profound opposite of love. And this thought finds its home in this command. The Hebrew from which this is translated certainly encompasses the command not to take someone’s life unjustly, but it casts wider than that. Rabbinical tradition includes the broader concept of not stealing someone’s life – and in recent times was used by Rabbis as a command against kidnapping or enslaving. For Moses, such thoughts would have resonated profoundly. Firstly, he did steal someone’s life, literally, he killed the Egyptian. But his people, who he was called to lead to freedom, had been ensl
Read more

The Ten Commandments

“Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the  Lord  your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ” This passage, from Deuteronomy 6 is known as the Shema (from the Hebrew “to hear”.) It comes after the commandments themselves and acts as a summary. Indeed, when asked what the greatest commandment was, rather than picking one of the ten, Jesus quotes from the Shema, arguing that all the commandments flow from this. So, what does it tell us, what context does it provide? ‘Hear O Israel’ As Moses reminded them, they went into Egypt as seventy persons, but by now outnumber the stars in the sky. Israel had become a vast multitude, yet God was addressing them as one nation. From the disunity of twelve tribes had come the community of one people. ‘The Lord our God, the Lord is one’ In the same way, God, who had begun to reveal Himself as three persons through the ‘First Book of Moses (Genesis), is nonetheless on
Read more

Empty

This was what emptiness felt like. This act of intimacy, devoid of anything. The presence of a man, so close yet so far away. The sound of the other women, chatting as they passed the house, but not to her. The emptiness of her life, empty of joy, empty of hope, empty of meaning. She knew how she had got here, couldn’t imagine any other choices. All her paths led to the same place. Five husbands. Five. Each with reducing hope and now, a man, but not a husband. "At least I won’t be alone" she had lied, knowing that the day would soon come when even with his presence she would feel alone, perhaps, even more alone. It was over. In the past, there was always the hope that maybe, this time, she would be pregnant, but the continued emptiness of her womb echoed the emptiness of her life. She got up to wash the memory of him away, with the last of the water. He could bathe in the river later, he at least could still be seen in public. She dressed in silence and the drud
Read more