A Visit to my Two Towers
There are more significant references to Two Towers than what I have in mind; so if you’re a Tolkien fan or a native New Yorker, I’m sorry to disappoint. A more obscure meaning for those intent on building a life of purpose, is the lifelong task to build two towers: the first, home and family and the second, whatever work you do to create your legacy, make your mark upon the world.
Right now I’m ruminating about that second tower. And I’m wondering where “choice” fits in to this picture. I’d always imagined that my mark would be one of personal choice, of passionate artistic expression, but now I’m considering the possibility that it’s not like that at all. Well, perhaps it is sometimes or for some people, but not now and not me.
The more I strive to listen closely to my heart, to focus on what really matters, the less I seem to have any idea of where I’m going. I look at many of the events in my life and repeatedly I find myself viewing circumstances that appear beyond my plans or control. Perhaps our choices, if we actually have any, come only at the crossroads; we have the free will to choose our own path, but not the destination. After all, once you take the road around the bend in that yellow wood, who’s to say where it will lead? (interesting how the path leads you…)
Is that it, then? Does it not really matter where we end up, but instead how we get there? For ultimately, we really do all end up in the same place, don’t we?