Blog 2525 – 09.24.2022
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Yesterday, as I watched episode five of the new Prime Video series, The Rings of Power, I heard a lovely song about the wandering wee folk that seem to be the ancestors of the Middle Earth people later known as the Hobbits. The line from the song that touched me most was, “Not all who wander or wonder are lost.”
I grew up in a narrow Christian fundamentalist sect where all the world was divided into two groups, the few on the narrow way and the billions wandering, the saved and the lost. It is a narrow view that I discarded many years ago and I have come to believe that none who wander or wonder are lost. But rather that many of the few who think themselves found have just lost the will to wander or to wonder.
Karl Marx in his Communist Manifesto wrote that religion is the opiate of the people. It is rather comforting to think you have found the answer and need search no more. I am reminded about what Mark Twain said about travel.
That being said, it is wonder that is the spice of life, and in my opinion a key ingredient to a viable boredom and drug prevention program is the wonder of it all.
In less than two months I will celebrate three score and twelve years on this particular journey in space and time. That is seventy-two years for those unfamiliar with scores. My plan for retirement was to travel, to see as much of this world as I could in the time remaining. Those plans are currently on hold as I have commitments that will keep me in Houston for the time being. But even though I am prevented from wandering I can still wonder.
Yesterday morning as I rode my bike in the neighborhood before the sun came up, I looked up and saw that Smiley Moon like Alice’s Cheshire Cat grinning at me. We have a secret, this wandering wondering boy is ever willing to share. It is this: Wherever you may roam, you are never far from home, wherever you many wander and whatever wonder you may ponder regarding mountains climbed or rivers crossed, they who wander or wonder are never truly lost.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
Sweet Baby James & Long Ago And Far Away
theencouragingword 