Let's Go Off-Road!

History goes through time in waves. Ideas enter the general consciousness one minute and in the next they are gone. Progress is one of those ideas and is the central focal point in Forester’s Over the Hedge. One aspect of the poem that struck me was the main character’s mind-set of progress. He almost seemed brainwashed. He felt that he must continue to move on. He only stopped walking because he was so tired; his stopping was “shocking” to him. Lost of all motivation he laid on the ground praying that he might give up. He could not seem to give up, but there was something inside of him that wanted to. Once he was in the garden, he still did not want to give in. It was not until the very end when he took a drink from the garden, that he finally accepted the idea of life off the road. This is pivotal. The character not only turned away from the never stopping mindset of the road, he was faced the new idea of success found in the garden that he could choose to accept of refuse. In the garden something is worthy just because it is. The traveler was faced with the decision to stay on the road, which he was familiar with, or stay in the garden with a new idea of success to get adjusted to.

The allegory reminds me so much of our world today. We are constantly moving forward, yet we don’t seem to understand those who aren’t moving according to the idea we have of success. The daughter who has to stay home and take care of her sick mother—is she successful according to the road? People like her are those who aren’t on the road. Does that mean she is not successful? What would those on the road think about her? And what would the garden people say?

This leads me to the question: What is my definition of success? What makes life successful? It’s easy for those of us living in the real world today to get caught up in the hype and dust of the road until we find ourselves at the Hedge too.

P.S. I commented on Callie's Blog