I was sitting at the airport in between flights reading (sigh) something political in the New York Times. A phrase buried in one of the comments stood out:
‘The known is always safer than the unknown.’
Is it really?
Granted, I was on my way home after hiking nine days through the southern High Sierra. It was tough. There were a lot of days we had no idea how we’d get to where we had pointed to on our map. No trails. Just up or down. We looked forward to those. It was cool figuring out where to turn, which route to take.
There were also days on trails. We looked forward to those, too. We could zone out, stare ahead of our feet, and just go.
What’s the point? I’m not sure. Sometimes one may seem safer than the other. Both are necessary. Maybe it's just a good reminder for me to be careful using words like ‘always.’
