Conjunction Junction, What’s Your Function?
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
1874 –1963
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I have not been writing much the last several weeks. I believe it is a conjunction of several converging paths. ( That last sentence did not tell you anything other than the definition of “conjunction”.) I have been navigating into my full time roll at Hope while traversing a route away from my long held employment. The former is exciting and fulfilling, while the latter quite the anthesis. It is a new road that arises in front of me.
That same day two of Jesus’ disciples were going to the village of Emmaus, which was about eleven kilometers from Jerusalem. As they were talking and thinking about what had happened, Jesus came near and started walking along beside them. But they did not know who he was.
Jesus asked them, “What were you talking about as you walked along?”
The two of them stood there looking sad and gloomy. Then the one named Cleopas asked Jesus, “Are you the only person from Jerusalem who didn’t know what was happening there these last few days?”
“What do you mean?” Jesus asked.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2024&version=CEV>
From your precepts I gain understanding.
Therefore, I hate every false road.
Your words are a lamp for my feet
and a light for my path.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20119&version=EHV>
See this dry, crumbly bread of ours? It was hot out of the oven when we packed the food on the day we left our homes. These cracked wineskins were new when we filled them, and our clothes and sandals are worn out because we have traveled so far.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%209&version=CEV>
Or this from a song by The Grateful Dead:
Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been
Trust the Promises,
Steve Skiver