A Different Path

I’m now on my way home after enjoying a day and a half with my friend Bill in Paducah, Kentucky, a brief visit with my friend Mark in West Virginia.  It didn’t make much sense to retrace the same roads by which I traveled to Paducah, so I am returning home another way.  This morning I left Paducah and traveled southeast on I-24 to Nashville, TN, and then I-40 across Tennessee to I-81 into Virginia.  Tomorrow I’ll continue on I-81 and eventually reach home in the late afternoon.

As I drove through Tennessee today I realized that I could have retraced my path because the return trip would be seen and felt differently than it was the first time. Heraclitus was right when he said, “No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”  I could have retraced my journey—through Kentucky and West Virginia. I would not have found it the same as it was the first time around.  The foliage in West Virginia is probably more colorful now than it was a few days ago, and I would probably see things I didn’t see on the original trip. It would also be different because I’m not the same fellow who drove those highways a few days ago.  I’ve gained some new insights, some new thoughts, some new feelings while visiting my friends—I’m not the same person I was a few days ago.   

The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between and to be changed and to grow from the experience.  I could have gone home the way I had come—but I chose to take a different path and have enjoyed it so far.