Suiting Your Journey

Suiting Your Journey

All my life no matter where I've lived

I've always had the good fortune

to have a few friends with whom

I could occupy my time,

and I don't mind a good conversation

with a stranger now and then either

but the sort of passions I have in life---

Mysticism, anthropology,

philosophy and writing,

have made me a loner as well.

I don't think any writer ever writes

anything down without the intention

of having it read; I've long said

that written words are not complete

until they've been read by at least one other.

In the end writing is a social endeavor.

Likewise philosophy dictates the you acquaint

yourself with as many people as you can

and then form ideas that say useful things

about all of mankind,

and so, it too, is a social effort.

But to be a philosopher or writer

worth half a spit, you also gotta enjoy

a lot of wandering wide and far

in the solitude your thoughts and your heart.

One strange thing I've noticed over the years

is that long, long before I realized any of that,

I had arraigned my life in such a way

that I could be all alone with my thoughts

some of the time and well surrounded by

people some of the time.

I think that pretty much everyone is like that.

Whenever at all possible, we each arrange our lives

to suit the paths we have chosen.

Not only that, we do much of the arranging

long before we are ever consciously aware

of what path we're on, or what arrangements

might best suit our journey.

Dewey Dirks