Thought for the Day, July 28,00

Subject: Thought for the Day, July 28,00
From: Peter T.
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 09:11 AM

I have been considering those well-worn phrases, the "well-worn path" and "off the beaten track".

There are good things about the well-worn path -- if you are lost in a thickety woods and come upon a well-worn path, the relief is tremendous. You can be reasonably sure that the trail does reasonably intelligent things, heads towards water, circles the hill at the least steep angle, and generally exhibits the cumulative experience of who knows how many people. Designers know that you put down the asphalt lines for walkers on complex sites after the first few days, so that the "desire lines" of least resistance and direct connection are formed by the feet of people seeking to minimise energy expenditure. And there are well-worn paths through museums like the Louvre, not just because of the Mona Lisa, but because the general consensus is not always wrong: people go where the masterpieces are.

Still -- and it is also a cliche -- "off the beaten track" has its own virtues. The well-worn path, from an environmentalist point of view, is dead ground, the grass pounded out, the soil compacted, the edges dreary, with the largest accumulations of trash. The closer you are to the well-worn path, the more the sameness wears you down. It is said that the paintings in the Louvre have become uglier because of all the ugly people who have looked at them over the centuries. There are no surprises: you can be sure that someone was there first, and since others have been there, it has been mauled, or cleaned up, or prettified, or the lawns cut.

Off the beaten path -- to get there means more work, because less has been done for you before, you have to slog through the undergrowth; -- to enjoy it means being open to risk, to surprise, to the possibility that nothing will happen just as often as something. You can spend a lot of time in the woods not seeing the animals that anyone can see in a zoo. It is very often no fun at all. But (the inevitable but), whatever you come across is not planned, not pre-masticated, not immediately frameable in your categories. It challenges, threatens, changes. It is not for everyboy: that is why it is what it is -- off the beaten path.

And it is not as easy to get off the well-worn path as it looks: the above paragraphs may well prove that -- even in trying to think about them, the cliches tempt and beckon towards the conventional thought, the nod of easy approval, the line of least resistance. But they similarly call upon the store of familiar knowledge and experience without which it would be hard to illumine common facets of our lives. Both then: the well worn path, and off the beaten track.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day, July 28,00
From: MMario
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 09:16 AM

How true....and it applies to other things. Sure, the straight music threads provide a lot of information; but some "off the beaten path" threads have come up with gems we might never have seen.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day, July 28,00
From: Peter T.
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 09:23 AM

Sorry for the typo, should be "everybody" -- everyboy and everygirl! yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day, July 28,00
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 09:24 AM

It's funny Peter, I always feel as if I am on the well beaten path plodding along the same old road thousands have plodded before me. And then I am caught up short by relatives who marvel at my outrageous lifestyle and daring life choices. Go figure!
I often think about the men who explored and settled the US, those who were as terrified of a beaten path or the approach of civilization as most of us are of the unknown. They must have been fascinating individuals. Or were they simply sociopaths? I wonder what their dreams were? I wonder if they died satisfied with their accomplishments the same way a townie dies in his bed surrounded by fat, healthy children and grandchildren.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day, July 28,00
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 09:51 AM

Very nice today Peter.

Somebody once said that my mind lives out where the buses don't run. Is this in any way similar?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day, July 28,00
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 09:53 AM

Thought provoking and poetic once again, Peter. Thanks.

The alchemists believed that to turn lead to gold you had to perform the process exactly right, under the ideal conditions. To achieve this required seemingly endless repetition. Some think that what was transformed through this repetition was not the lead, but rather the alchemist.

How many things in this life do we get right the first time?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day, July 28,00
From: bob jr
Date: 29 Jul 00 - 12:46 AM

if that is your thought of the day you need to get out more maybe go to the track or take the path of more resistance cause these things are getting more and more boring as time goes by