I had just turned thirteen years old when I watched and listened to a white haired man speak during the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. The speaker was Robert Frost. The inauguration was on January 20, 1961 and on one of the coldest January days in recorded history. Frost became the first poet to read in the program of a presidential inauguration.
One of my favorite poems is not the one spoken on that historical day, but one I would latter be introduced to in an English literature class. The name of the poem is,
The Road not Taken.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost is telling us not to follow the pack, but to look within, and to become the path finder. He is saying not to always travel the path that has been pave over by those who have been there before us. If you have a choice, he says, take the road less traveled by and it will make all the difference. In other words, trust yourself. Listen to your intuition and understand what they mean when they say, "Talking to God is prayer, but God talking to you is intuition. Follow it, regardless of who has been there before . Listen to your heart.
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