The Roads We Choose

One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken. The closing lines are these:

"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

This could describe the choices of the character Mike in The Pencil Man. Mike left home a boy. When he returned from World War II he was no longer a boy and yet one was left to wonder if he was now a man. Mike himself couldn't answer that question with any certainty. He had seen so many sights in combat that the folks back home would not be able to understand.

Like Mr. Frost, Mike could have returned by train, or bus, but he chose the road "less traveled." Mike chose to walk home from California to his home in Anderson, Indiana. His father, who had experienced the same kind of trauma in The Great War, understood his son's need to sort things out and to do it within the context of a young man's great adventure.

Mike saw sights that were intimate and bold. He met people in all situations of life. Some people Mike met were wiser than he. Others were foolish. Some were good natured, some comical, and others were unworldly grim like the truck driver from Oklahoma who had lost his entire family in a tornado. The young Marine heard music that others failed to notice.

As he drew closer to home, Mike began to feel the pressure of having to make a decision on what to do with his life. Several along the way had given Mike good counsel. One of his most unusual advisors was a tombstone named Haywood:

- Just north of Morganville is a large cemetery. Mike stopped there and had lunch with a man named Haywood. According to his headstone, Haywood had been dead since 1922. Mike figured that Haywood was about the same age as his dad, so Mike decided to spill his soul as he ate his sandwich, drank his cola, and shelled his peanuts.

Mike talked about the war, the men he had killed, and the friends he had lost before his eyes. He talked about the people he had met along the walk home. He told Haywood about Tony and asked if his brother was alive or dead.

Haywood didn’t say either way.

Mike told Haywood about Shirley, and Norma June, and Veronica. He asked Haywood which one he would choose, but Haywood’s wife was next to him, and he obviously didn’t feel free to talk.

Finally he told Haywood about Peggy Lilac and what the preacher had said about making conscious choices even in the presence of strong temptation.

“I’m afraid to go home, Mr. Haywood. I’m afraid I’ve seen too much evil and didn’t fight it enough. I’m afraid that I’ll be a weak and unfaithful husband. I already feel like I’ve disappointed my parents. It’s going to be hard crossing that river.”

Haywood just listened. He didn’t condemn. He didn’t scold or give advice. Sometimes you need that in a friend.

Mike started to gather up the peanut shells from Haywood’s grave, but they blew over to the next grave. He figured if Haywood wasn’t getting along with his neighbor then that was between them.

As Mike passed through the double brick pillars of the cemetery entrance and back onto the road, he heard a voice in the wind, “I hope you figure it out boy.” -

Many of the characters in Angel and the Ivory Tower, The Pencil Man, The Art of Freezing Pickles, Satchel at the Second Chance, and Lawrence of Lawrence are traveling on Mike's road. Male, Female, young, old, rich, or poor, they all come to a fork in the road and have to make a choice that will change their story forever.

Are we any different?

www.angelivory.com