The Wrong Road

In Norton Juster's book, The Phantom Tollbooth, our protagonist asks directions of someone "Is this the right road for Dictionopolis?"  I love the response.  "I don't know of any wrong road to Dictionopolis, so if this road goes to Dictionopolis at all it must be the right road, and if it doesn't it must be the right road to somewhere else, because there are no wrong roads to anywhere."



In life, everyone is on their own path.  Nobody's path is the same, and none of them are wrong paths.  But what matters is the destination.  I think it is easy to fall into the trap of judging someone based on their road being different from ours.  I am on a road to get to my desired destination, and I may worry that someone else trying to get to the same destination is not on the same road I'm taking.  But as long as the roads do eventually lead to that destination, they are both right roads.

Telling the story of our journeys can be useful.  Others who traverse similar roads can learn from our stories about unfortunate detours and potholes to avoid.  But we need not suppose everyone follows the same road.  Similarly, we should not try to silence the stories of others just because the maps constructed by their stories are not the ones that make sense for our roads.  Rather, we need to learn to discern which maps are useful for our own journeys, that will help us reach our desired destinations.

The most important advice may be that if we truly desire to reach a destination, we need to make sure our road leads to that destination, because if it doesn't, it's the right road to some other destination, one we may not want to reach.