On the road again...

T h e   J o u r n e y   S o   F a r

This too human condition, of which all are dutiful subjects,
pushes, prods, pulls and rends the very fabric of our lives,
taking us first this way, then that and then yet another,
as we make our way along the paths of our individual desires,
until time and circumstance ultimately converge with finality.  

Oh, the course may be smooth or rough, whether long or not,
there may be no limit to our progress, or even no end to limits.
When first we begin, as babes we are unaware and unable.
 As we grow, whether by accident or by design, we do not change,
other than by the degrees measured in tears and sweat.  

Why have the fates challenged us with such unrelenting tedium,
and bedeviled us with temper, burdened us with needless vanity,
while placing the more desirable and admirable characteristics
heartbreakingly out of reach, of all except the near saintly,
or the unhappy few who exhibit a shocking lack of human frailty.  

These times that try our limited patience and test our souls,
are no different than times past nor the times yet to come.
The trappings, costumes and vocabulary we use may to us appear
to be all our own,  we believe, unique in our specific time and place,
but, after all,  they are only one more link in the chain of history.  

Even as we rail and struggle against a tide of outrageous misfortune,
we merely add our voices to the song that first began, so long ago,
when man crawled, naked and scared, out of the primordial ooze,
beginning the eternal search for meaning and comprehension,
for a better standard of existence in the then and future world.  

The search goes on and ever onward, even though the seekers
have long since forgotten the reason for their unending quest.
We continue to flounder, lame, blind and helpless in a shadow dance
only dimly reflecting the origins of the questions that still inspire
our actions and reactions, actions and inactions, actions and distractions.