You come to a fork in the road, an impasse. What do you do?

Question

Every day you make decisions, simple ones from what am I having for dinner to difficult ones that shake the core of your being.
How do you decide which road to take?
Let’s say one path is dark and treacherous and it may bring you great enlightenment or great pain. You can’t see the end but you know how the path begins and that at the end of the path you will forever be changed.
The opposite path is goodness and light, nothing changes, everything stays the same. It is always the same.
Which path do you choose and why?
The path fraught with toil and pain for the benefit of experience and knowledge or the path that is simple and easy for the benefit of convenience.

This question is here in religion section because God or the absence of God helps us determine what we will do and how we progress.

This question is here in religion section because God or the absence of God helps us determine what we will do and how we progress.

Oh I double clicked what a doofus!

Snuffy- it may be a long way to go if you are bleeding! LOL.

Answer 1

Excerpt from Thomas the Rhymer

'O see ye not yon narrow road,
So think beset with thorns and briers?
That is that path of righteousness,
Tho after it but few enquires.

'And see not ye that briad braid road
That lies across the lily leven?
That is the path of wickedness,
Tho some call it the road to heaven.

'And see not ye that bonny road,
That winds about the fernie brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland,
Where thou and I this night maun gae.


I would choose the bonny road to fair Elfland... given the option.

Something I learned long ago, is that sometimes the road determines the sights along the way (Our path, so to speak, determines our experiences) and sometimes the sights determine the road. (Our experiences determine our path.) Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is to follow your heart, when your head says otherwise - but truly, the heart knows the way of your true path.

Answer 2

Look, if you believe in a God, and I'm not saying you have to, then it doesn't matter which path you take as he/she/it will be with you. However, if you want to grow as a person, and fill yourself with the richness of experiences both positive and negative, then you are open to trying new things and learning from potential mistakes. Leave God out of it. The rest is up to you.

And by the way, this isn't an impasse at the fork, this is just a decision point. An impasse would mean you can't get past it at all.

Answer 3

Oh my gosh, I get to answer one of YOUR questions for a change!!! Personally, I take the dark and treacherous path because I feel that nothing is too much of a challenge for me to handle. The convenient path seems awfully boring to me and I'd rather conquer challenges all my life and feel as though I have lived than to take the simple and easy path.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Choosing ease and comfort is easy. But God has always asked us to test ourselves at (frequently) our own expense, or to our distaste. Whether its been loving our enemies or asking us to take great risks for complete strangers, life is our test, "fraught with toil and pain" but also punctuated by success and elation, and finally (hopefully) peace beyond our wildest dreams. The hard road for me thank you, I might moan and groan, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The other choice is not life, is not the truth. Its all yin and no yang. The battle hardest won is the battle most worth winning.

Answer 6

The path I choose depends on too many factors to answer as an all time absolute. Sometimes I choose the path of toil and pain... and sometimes the path of convenience... As do we all, regardless of our faith or belief (or lack thereof) in God, gods, supreme beings or great spirit helpers.

Answer 7

Age, experience and knowledge help determine the path that I take. I have taken some of those rocky trips, gotten bruised and beaten up, but have emerged kind of like Gonzo, from the Muppets, who after getting blown up or knocked around, will shake himself off, stand up and say "Wow, can I do that again?" However, sometimes, you just get beat up and bruised and have to find the courgage just to figure out how to get up again.

Two years ago I went through an experience that shook me to my core, challenged virtually every belief that I have, caused me great personal and emotional tumult. I will never, hopefully never, repeat the series of decisions that led to that upheaval in my life. But having gone through it, and learned what I know of myself now, I am a richer, more wise person, and I believe a better person for having gone through it...

That fork in the road had a profound effect on me, and I knew the risks going in. At first it seemed like a perfect avenue for me - just the cure for someone who was sleepwalking through life and no longer enjoying the ride. At first it was, and it opened my eyes to a new world of richness and excitement. That wonder and excitement did not last, and a feeling of desperation and bitterness settled upon me. As I examined myself and my motivations and actions I found that I needed to change from my selfishness to be more giving and generous. The fork in the road was definitely cathartic, and it helped me to change and therefore improve myself, and my knowledge of myself - both are good things to happen to anyone.

That being said, if a similar fork in the road would present itself, I know which way I would take, as I have been down the road of self-discovery, and know that the process of learning about oneself and finding one's best route in life is one that needs to be taken consciously and seriously, with both eyes wide open. Taking a chance on something and hoping that it comes out for the best should be reserved for rides at an amusement park.

The pain and turmoil taught me a lot, and one of the main things that those things taught me are that good, solid, productive life decisions happen all the time, in almost every decision that we make. Taking a walk on the wild side might be the "raison d'etre" for some, but it can also be an eager supplier of casualties along the way.

My faith does impact my decision making to a certain extent, and I know that is of no use to you, by reading your profile. Suffice to say that I need to move in the direction of light, in that I need to have a moral underpinning to my decisions. You may think that not all decisions have that in their substance, but I must at least do the due diligence to make sure I have some reason to sustain the risk of taking that dark path, and the positives must seriously outweigh the negatives for me to set off in that direction.

I also respectively submit that the basis for your question is flawed (from my perspective, anyway - though you certainly have the right to frame the question to your choosing...) - not all the paths of darkness have some great discovery or magical catharsis waiting at the end, and not all paths of goodness and light beget an unchanged person... There are nuances and discovery down each path - just not all that everyone (anyone?) needs to experience to make that change happen.

Thank you for a well thought out question, and one that gives opportunities for much introspection.

Answer 8

I would forge my own path between the two. Who, in their right mind, would travel onto a path that is full of trechery, and who would travel onto a path that is mundane? Why would you not travel into the woods and make your own path? I would like to think that is how I have lived my life. I'd either make my own path or climb a tree & laugh at the people who go down the scary one! :-)

Answer 9

Most of the times I've tried the dark road, it sucked. On the occasions it hasn't, it isn't clear it was any better than the simple easy road.

...and I also think 35 seconds to get my order in the drive through is too damned long!

Answer 10

Consult with others first. Only an idiot would eyes wide open take a painful path just to get the experience of pain