Frost was right ... there are always two ways. And if you choose the one less trodden-the hidden implication being it's oh so exciting and full of derring-do - we would be wise to remember that is usually the beginning to a book full of unfortunate events ( I am still in the midst of my lemony snicket saga).
Consider that if you have something cooking on a stove... clearly you have choice to turn it off or leave it on... the path less trodden would dictate you leave it be and see what happens. But then it is easy to see that the end result can only be unhappy (people yelling, alarms going off and a generally pissed neighbourhood is sure to ensue presuming there are no fatalities and your house is still standing of course). But you may argue, that is not really a choice you need to make and Frost was arguing for something more profound, ambiguous, lasting maybe?
Here's a scenario (I am living this as we speak of course): Important things to be done... cleaning the house, prepping for the next day, putting your financial house in order, calling up friends... clearly the chosen path...Alternatively, lounge around, neglect all jobs and post to your blog...Now I can hear the chorus, of course the first you say... some might argue oh we can do both... but here's where the water gets muddied .. what if I suggest wasting one's time blogging about nothing (and reading said blog) is the chosen path and that doing one's jobs is clearly the alternative SUV requiring route? Aha! Stumped you haven't I? Especially with the reading blogs part? Thought you'd found a loophole...
But you protest once more... don't be silly what sort of choice is that? Besides there weren't any blogs those days ... (I am currently working on a post-modern hypothesis in poetry that during the dark ages of pen and paper, poetry was a man's best blog! But I digress...)...
Final possibility: delicious meal!! Decorated with your favourite topping of choice (aha! a hurdle right there isn't it? Is it raisins or maybe chocolate sauce or maybe those yummy cashews?) Do you eat it immediately or keep it aside till the last amazing explosion of flavour in your mouth? What if: you ate it first and had to struggle through the rest of the god awful meal? Or you kept it for last and it turned out that you were too full to enjoy any of it ... that is if you could actually get around to eating it? Pointless waste of going on the road less travelled by!!!
So ponder carefully my friend before you decide to follow that poet's words. Remember most of them were penniless layabouts. In following advice like that you might end up lost in a forest forever instead of entering an enchanted wood with beautiful people (where cashews can be enjoyed at the end of a humugous meal and burning stoves never set your house in flames). Remember that poets at their very best and worst were but poor muddled bloggers saying something on a quiet afternoon hoping the world would heed their words. So be alert and beat that trodden path down to a rut in the road. You'll be better off for it. This blogger says so and the computer is better than pen and paper. Or is it? You choose!!!
Consider that if you have something cooking on a stove... clearly you have choice to turn it off or leave it on... the path less trodden would dictate you leave it be and see what happens. But then it is easy to see that the end result can only be unhappy (people yelling, alarms going off and a generally pissed neighbourhood is sure to ensue presuming there are no fatalities and your house is still standing of course). But you may argue, that is not really a choice you need to make and Frost was arguing for something more profound, ambiguous, lasting maybe?
Here's a scenario (I am living this as we speak of course): Important things to be done... cleaning the house, prepping for the next day, putting your financial house in order, calling up friends... clearly the chosen path...Alternatively, lounge around, neglect all jobs and post to your blog...Now I can hear the chorus, of course the first you say... some might argue oh we can do both... but here's where the water gets muddied .. what if I suggest wasting one's time blogging about nothing (and reading said blog) is the chosen path and that doing one's jobs is clearly the alternative SUV requiring route? Aha! Stumped you haven't I? Especially with the reading blogs part? Thought you'd found a loophole...
But you protest once more... don't be silly what sort of choice is that? Besides there weren't any blogs those days ... (I am currently working on a post-modern hypothesis in poetry that during the dark ages of pen and paper, poetry was a man's best blog! But I digress...)...
Final possibility: delicious meal!! Decorated with your favourite topping of choice (aha! a hurdle right there isn't it? Is it raisins or maybe chocolate sauce or maybe those yummy cashews?) Do you eat it immediately or keep it aside till the last amazing explosion of flavour in your mouth? What if: you ate it first and had to struggle through the rest of the god awful meal? Or you kept it for last and it turned out that you were too full to enjoy any of it ... that is if you could actually get around to eating it? Pointless waste of going on the road less travelled by!!!
So ponder carefully my friend before you decide to follow that poet's words. Remember most of them were penniless layabouts. In following advice like that you might end up lost in a forest forever instead of entering an enchanted wood with beautiful people (where cashews can be enjoyed at the end of a humugous meal and burning stoves never set your house in flames). Remember that poets at their very best and worst were but poor muddled bloggers saying something on a quiet afternoon hoping the world would heed their words. So be alert and beat that trodden path down to a rut in the road. You'll be better off for it. This blogger says so and the computer is better than pen and paper. Or is it? You choose!!!
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