Direction

So, I've been thinking a bit over the last couple weeks about direction. Mainly, the direction I want my own life to go in. I mean really, where I am right now (both generally in life, and geographically) has really come about through a series of random occurrences and abrupt decisions, rather than some deeply thought-out master plan for the next 60 years... or even 6.

But as I've been trying to plan some direction for my life-- steer it towards where I want to be, in 6 years or 60-- I've been getting frustrated, because that's easier said than done. Having direction and being able to, in fact, go forth in that direction are entirely different things.

I encounter kids (or rather, "youth," as we term them, some of them being not much younger than me) everyday who have some idea of the direction they want their life to go in, but don't know how to get there. The fancy GPS system on your rental car (sorry, folks, but I know I don't know anyone who actually owns such a fancy car) can tell you to turn left 300 feet ahead, but sometimes they just happen to have built an office building right there.

Which suddenly brings to mind a trip to Vegas, a year ago-- well, an incidental trip, anyhow. It was more a matter of returning to Vegas from the barren desert, as that was where our flight departed. But the maps-- which were, if I recall, actually provided by the rental car company-- failed to mention that there was now an entire highway in our path. We followed the road where it told us to go, only to be met by an open field and no place to go but back in circles.

So it is with the young people I work with. And me. And, I'm guessing, most of y'all. Sometimes you can know exactly where you want to go; the difficulty is in getting there. Obstacles of time, finances, family circumstances, misinformation, or inexperience (among many others) have this amazing way of placing themselves directly in our paths.

So much for finding direction.