Forging Our Own Path

There is a line put forward by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado that, I believe, has an interesting connection with the act of communication. The line is: "Traveler, there is no path, the path must be forged as you walk." The sentiment of this line has been echoed by others, of course. "March to the beat of your own drummer;" "Do your own thing;" and "Everybody to his own bag;" to name but a few. The point is for any of us to be our own person - however we define that - then the path we chart for ourselves must, ultimately, be the result of our own choices, judgment, etc. Input from others is nice, but at the end of the day, it is us who decide which door to open as we move forward. 

Such a point in our lives also applies to how we interact with others and how we communicate our own perspectives, feelings, etc. This is our decision to make. Yes, during our lives we may have a range of advisors, including parents, well-meaning friends, teachers, priests and even public relations consultants. But as we advance toward and inevitably enter into maturity, the communication path we select comes down to our assessment of the advice of others, information we have attained, and the past experiences of ourselves and others. We take that input and, as Machado wrote so well, use it to forge our own path.

Each day we interact with the rest of the world, we are faced with unlimited challenges in terms of how most effectively to interact with, say, a police officer, demanding boss, spouse, child, angry neighbor, happy co-worker, or stranger in line in the check-out line of the local grocery store. These and so many other encounters in which we participate represent mini-paths that we must forge all by ourselves. A neighbor just snapped at me for not cutting my lawn as often as they may like. How should I respond? With equal anger? Patience? With no response? All this adds up to forging our own paths as communicators. It remains on ongoing challenge.