The Crossroad Boxes

If you've lived on this earth you've been there, at the two roads diverging in a wood. You've "...stood and looked down one as far as [you] could to where it bent in the undergrowth..."

(Frost, Robert, The Road Not Taken, The Poetry of Robert Frost edited by Edward Connery Lathem, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969, p. 105.)

Robert Frost's famous poem, The Road Not Taken, is one of his most loved poems and one of my favourites. It's a universal struggle experienced by millions of people worldwide languaged with such poetic skill that it engages our hearts. We've all been there.

It's not a fun place to be in my experience. I'd agonize and dream jumbled dreams until, in the quiet of surrender, I'd hear a clue that helped me move forward. Sometimes I'd take one choice or the other but I've also chosen to ignore both or choose a completely different path. Some of my choices weren't the best ones, either, in the all-revealing light of time and history.

That certainly seems like how we're choosing on a global scale these days. We tend to label others that aren't like us and put them in a box-- those liberal liberals, those crafty conservatives. Maybe we think that if we cram more of us into one box, we'll be more powerful and more true than the other box. We must be because more means we win. It's perhaps blatant to say that more guns, more bombs, more soldiers to fight, more money to spend probably means we win against those who do not have more. When one box wins, unfortunately, the heart of the issues seem to get buried or are silenced.

Perhaps there's a better way to make the best choices instead of being boxed into crossroad thinking, or believing we must choose one side over the other. How do we get out of polarized boxes and do we even want to leave the safety they provide? I'm not a crossroad box guru, but I have some thoughts. We're taught to choose a side or decide what's right and wrong from an early age. We've been socialized, commercialized, desensitized and dichotomized to choose one over the other.

I'm getting a little carried away with words, but think about it. We are taught right from birth that "this" is the way we are. We're status 'this', gender 'this', race 'this', patriotic 'this', religious 'this'. Our ancestors possessed certain prominent qualities or characteristics so our parents tell us we come from people who are this and that, such as intelligent scientists, brave warriors, famous artists, hard working workers, brilliant teachers, talented athletes. All these descriptors find their way into how we think about ourselves and then we line up to get into the box labelled "us". We certainly aren't like the box labelled "them".

If we go deeper into what's at stake, we could take a look at the consequences of our choices. When an important decision must be made, or we need to choose between the crossroad boxes, I submit we need to look at why we must choose because we might not be seeing the deeper issues. We might even be just jumping from one box to the other. What about crossroad thinking itself? It's steeped in the belief that there are only two choices. One is a variation of "good for us" and the other is a variation of "bad for us". We could be assessing, instead, which choice is aligned to who we really are at the soul level? Do we really know who we are at that level?

If I'd asked myself that question not so long ago and was honest and aware, I'd have said I didn't know who I was at the soul level. Perhaps that's exactly what the question is revealing. It's saying we need another question to tackle what's before us. We could question whether we're allowing our hearts and souls to inform our decision-making processes, because to survive in an uncertain future, our brains can't be the "boss" of us anymore. Thinking alone will not help us.

Our capacity to judge whether one option is better than another has been corrupted to mean one person or box of persons is better than the other person or box of persons. Until our boxes rise higher than that or start adulting, other options will not be evident. We could start listening to what's valuable, true and noble about what both boxes are saying and throw out the rest. Better still, we could get out of our boxes and see each other as humans just like we are.

To do that means developing our listening and discerning skills. Sharp, discerning leadership needs the energy of their hearts and the wisdom of their souls to even be able to see the far reaching consequences of the big choices they're putting before us right now. Why? Our hearts and souls speak different languages. Love sees with better options for the greater good. The wisdom of soul knows the optimal path for all of us into the future.

I wonder what those kinds of leaders might be saying right now. I'd like to think they'd have the hutzpah to rise beyond petty partisan squabbles to show us clearly what's ahead and why we need to make the big decisions to help us even live as humans on this planet. That begs the question of who we're choosing as leaders in every country on earth. Are we choosing those with qualities of heart, soul and brain that seek to work with each other for the greater good and survival?

The Earth may be the deciding factor. She is rumbling and indicating with graphic clarity at what's coming and we're too frightened to step out of our crossroad boxes and work together. Seriously, can we collectively rise higher and address the issues in front of us that will directly impact all of us no matter what box we think we're in?

There will come a day when the boxes disappear. Adult leaders could choose to lead and create something better for all of us, or those stuck in polarized thinking could spell the inevitable destruction of all the boxes. "Somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood...".

Isn't there another road we haven't thought of yet?