"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat
For some reason this quote from Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland caught my attention a couple of years ago. In retrospect I think it might have been due to the fact I was realizing I had been living my life not really knowing where I wanted to "get to". Classic children's literature and fairy tales have always fascinated me and Alice in Wonderland is no exception. I feel like there's always a moral, an element of truth we overlook in the "funness" of the child's world that is embraced in these stories. For some reason today the quote that caught my eye a few years ago, made me think once more about the deceptive simpleness of the two sentences.
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go?"
How many times have we been asked that question or have we asked it ourselves? It starts when we are children begging for affirmation that the decisions and choices we are attempting to make are the right ones. It doesn't stop there though. When looking to Mom and Dad ceases to be "cool" we transfer that need for affirmation onto others, always looking to someone to guide our way. As humans we fear making the mistake that will "mess up" our lives. What if we choose the wrong career? What if we date the wrong person? What if we marry the wrong person? What if we mess up as parents? Our lists of "what if's" goes on and on. How many times do we end up feeling like Alice in that we never really know if our choice we are about to make is the right one and so we end up looking to a disappearing cat for our answers?
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat
I think the second sentence is the one that captures my attention the most. "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." In his book Chazown, Craig Groeschel points out in multiple ways that if we fail to plan we plan to fail. How often are we guilty of living our lives by chance, hoping that we find the right career, the right spouse, living on hope in general that we find the right path in life. That we will somehow stumble across the path God has uniquely designed for us if we get direction from enough people.
I think this quote really caught my attention today because I realized how guilty I've been of living my life asking guidance from my own disappearing cats which unfortunately never gave the sound advice of it depends on where I want to get. I realized that at 31 I've lived most of my life in the hope that I won't screw up my life too bad and that somehow I'll find the right way never really stopping to ask where I was headed to start with. That said, yes I realize that when Abraham left for the land God promised him, he didn't exactly have GPS co-ordinates, but he had a direction from God. But as I thought about how often I've tried to leave things up to chance, looking to others to guide my way through life never stopping to ask what direction I was headed. Don't get me wrong other people can make great guides along the way, but if you try asking a farmer for directions in downtown New York City you won't get where you need to be. However, if you need to find your way in the middle of nowhere with lots of country back roads you'll want the farmer every time! That would be the reason that knowing the direction you need to head is so vitally important. How do you know who to ask directions from if you don't where you're headed? Does it mean you need the big picture right away? I don't think so, but floating from person to person asking where you ought to go isn't the best plan either.
Random words from a children's book? Maybe... But if applied the right way they can be very thought provoking.
