A Roundabout Path

It's truly, truly been...a very long roundabout path.-Johhny Joestar, Steel Ball Run

Image Credit: Lexica Art

The shortest route is the detour. It was the detour that was our shortest path.—Gyro Zeppeli, Steel Ball Run

If we are to use an aphorism to begin, then let us choose the aphorism that deals with the shortness of length. Quality over quantity but as Karl Marx reminds us, quantity has a quality of its own.

We chase the rainbow. We have a final destination set in stone. Our goals and our movements are spurred by the mind’s eye. A detour does nothing but add to the length of the trip. But the wild bull can only be tamed after it has enjoyed long pastures of idleness and meadows of free thoughts. Only then will it enjoy the open pen and then the barn.

A disciple of Gurdjieff once met a mentor that had studied under him. The disciple spat his spiritual biography and the mentor replied “Why on Earth, would you want to change?” The Buddha declared that to be happy is to get rid of desires. Yet the desiring of no desires is a double bind.

If you want-want what you want-want, then you want it
Can't hide what you desire once you're on it
—Maggie Rogers Want Want

Your heart knows what it wants. It wants what it wants and ratiocination will not save you. In pursuit of the primary goal, we find that the secondary goal is where we shall grow. It allows us to explore, to clarify, and become what we are. The goalpost not only moves, but we become an entirely different beast.