It's always challenging to know where to start when writing on a topic. The easiest place, of course, is the beginning, for all things have a beginning. Sometimes it is good to start in the present then work your way back to the true beginning as it all comes together---shining light on the present. I think I will begin with the first time I pondered the question of what life could be compared to.
I was with a group of friends, and the leader asked us how we viewed life--- to what would we metaphorically compare life? Some said a journey, traveling through life as sojourners and explorers, where we are always discovering new things and new experiences, whether actually heading anywhere or not. Another said a journey, but definitely headed somewhere, to some end place. Others said things such as a classroom, a testing ground, a battle, a competition or game, a home (and, a home away from home). Then one person mentioned a race. Before he mentioned a race, I was leaning toward the journey concept. I had thought about a race before and resisted it as a true metaphor of life because I disliked, or disagreed, that life was primarily a competition in which we are trying to win. I had focused on the winning of a race. Winning always means that someone loses, and I didn't (don't) like the idea of some losing at my expense. Life as a journey, though, meant that each person could be on their own journey, at different paces. However, this night, the person who brought up life as a race concentrated on not the winning aspect of running a race that I so rejected, but FINISHING the race. The point, he stressed, is to finish the race, and finish well (implying the opposite--that we could finish life badly, or somewhere in between). The same concept could be applied to the journey idea, stressing finishing the journey, getting to where we are going.
Both ideas equally require that we know, or at least have some inkling as to "where we are going". I believe we all need to try to settle that question as early as possible. The difference between the race analogy and the journey analogy is that on a journey you can kind of figure out where you are going along the way, as long as you start out in the general right direction. In the race analogy, on the other hand, you must know, for all practical matter, what it means to finish, and where the finish line is.
It is this concept of "finishing" in general, (and finishing well), and my parallel personal experiences and observations in particular that I want to talk about on this blog. First, though, I hope others will ponder the question: To what would you compare life? And, what do you think about my "ponderings"?
