Taking the easy road
We walked towards the mountain, my friend and I. We knew we had to cross to the other side. We had heard that the valleys across were full of milk and honey, that jobs were aplenty, people sweet and friendly and opportunities enough to achieve our dreams.
But we also knew we had to cross the mountain to reach that promised land.
We came across two paths, my friend and I, that led to the mountain: One broad and easy, the other narrow, treacherous and difficult.
“Let’s take the easy path!” smiled my friend to me, “so that when we reach the mountain, we will have strength and energy to climb.”
“Let’s take the path more difficult!” I whispered, “So that when we reach the beginning of the mountain, we will have muscle by then to climb.”
But my friend smiled and walked down the broad and easy way. I watched. It did not go directly towards the mountain but turned, meandered and wandered, and all along the sides of that broad road, men and women sold their wares and even gave them away free to my happy friend. I watched as he lifted himself up with the opium offered, the drugs, the marijuana that was in every stall along the way. I watched him learn to hold his liquor down. “I can drink a full bottle!” he shouted across our roads, “and tomorrow I’ll drink two!” he said as he staggered away.
I walked down the narrow road, and sometimes cursed, oftimes sobbed as thorns and rocks, sometimes small pebbles and jagged stones made me stumble, falter, fall. I looked at my friend and ever so often wished I could walk the easy walk he’d set himself to do.
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist with an estimated readership of 6 million. He also conducts a short-term writer’s course. Contact him at bobsbanter@gmail.com for more details.