In search of a resolution

I wonder if we’re gathering stones, or piling them up, striving to raise the very ground we stand on, live on. Building on the past, our ancestors turning in their graves, or watching from heaven, amused by our little problems. They saw the same things, perhaps in different ways. They too asked, “What’s next?” Knelt down beside their beds, faces buried in hands, or calling to the mountains. Which road to take? The one less travelled, the one you’ve walked before? How long can you wait for the reply to echo back?

 

Adam waits at the junction, the signposts are blank. He considers his options, he stands still and thinks, then he starts to pace back and forth shaking his head. Then he sits down, in the dust, legs crossed. A while later another man comes up behind him, he doesn’t stop, doesn’t even look at the signpost, just carries on down the left path. Adam hails him but gets no reply.

A second man appears, he pauses at the junction and looks down at Adam on the ground. “Do you know which way is best?” he asked.

“The last person went left,” Adam answered.

“Hmm. Guess I will too.” The man ambled off.

Time passed. A woman arrived.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” said Adam.

“What are you waiting for?”

“An answer,” replied Adam after a pause. “A resolution.”

The woman sat down. “A resolution isn’t an ending,” she said, “no answer will end your confusion.”

“Then what is a resolution?”

“A resolve.” The woman smiled. “A determination to get up an go on. Both of these ways are equally long.”

“And equally wrong?”

“Depends.” She smiled again.

“On what?”

“If you’ll let me go with you?”

“Which way should I go?”

“You choose.”

“I feel like you already know which one I’ll choose.”

“Maybe,” said the woman, “I’m not too worried which one, I’ve seen them both, but if you’re waiting for someone else to bring you your own resolve you’ll be waiting a long time. I’m not going to tell you. But if you let me join you I’ll make sure you get to the other end safely.”

“Right.”

“You understand?”

“No, we’re going right,” said Adam, getting up, “I don’t understand a thing.”