June 3, 2007
-
Journey vs Destination
Sally: Come on, let’s take a drive.
Lightning McQueen: A drive?
Sally: Yeah, a drive. Don’t you big city racecars ever just take a drive?
Lightning McQueen: Ah, no. No we don’t.Sometimes while we’re on our journey across the road of life, we become so focused on our destination, that we lose sight of everything else. Our goals become all consuming, taking importance over nearly everything, so much so that our only concern is reaching it, obtaining it, attaining it… sometimes at any cost. It’s like we can’t get there fast enough, quickly enough, we’re just so impatient to have it in our grasp, whatever it may be. But why are we always in such a rush to get there? Why is it so important to us to reach our goal with such haste?
Life is about more than destinations and goals, more than just reaching each waypoint on the road of life and preparing to head out for the next one. It’s not always so much about getting to where you’re going, but often the journey on the way to getting there that really brings us the experiences and joy that we unknowingly long for. Too often we reach our goals and find that the fulfillement that lies therein is fleeting at best, slipping away through your fingers far too quickly to offer lasting happiness. We were so focused on getting to that point that we neglected to really take any joy in our journey to get there. It’s like a movie, a book, or any good story. It’s not all about how it ends, but also the journey the story takes to reach the ending that we find compelling. Some of the best stories are the ones that draw us in from beginning to end, not just the ones that have a great ending (but a terrible beginning/middle).
Life is too short to only take joy in those brief moments when we finally reach our goals. The journey we take to get there is just as important, and enjoying the time you have, the adventures you find yourself on through the process of reaching your destination is just as important. We’ve become a society so focused purely on goals and desinations that we’ve forgotten that it’s not just reaching the end that’s important, it’s the road you take to get there and all the things that happen to you inbetween.
Lightning McQueen: Ok, you got me out here. Where we goin’?
Sally: I don’t know.
And courtesy of my cousin asickboy an editted Calvin & Hobbes strip that I thought was very witty:
Comments (2)
ryc: Not really…but okay. Thanks anyways.
I blame McDonalds.
Well, maybe not really. That’s said tongue-in-cheek. I think that the culture you describe is part of the whole “instant gratification” attitude that’s so prevalent. We’ve got to get it now so we can move on to the next point in the journey. Except we can easily get so caught up in the rush, I wonder if it’s possible to say that lots of folks are rushing with no real sense of where they’re going. So maybe it’s not about the destination, we’re just addicted to the crazy pace.