Journey Before Destination

Thoughts on Evil

My favorite book is called The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. It’s one of those long, painful fantasy novels that make you feel as though you must re-enter our world once you stop reading.

Its central theme is the phrase: Journey Before Destination.

Doesn’t sound like much of an epiphany. Of course, the journey comes before the destination. The journey is required to reach the destination. How else would you ever arrive?

But in The Way of Kings, when the protagonist finds himself drifting through a seemingly meaningless existence, when he waits for friends to die around him, this is the consolation offered to him.

Journey Before Destination.

The Destination, for us all, is the same: Death. The only distinguishing factor of meaning between our lives and those of our enemies, is how we live.

Evil presented itself today, in the shooting of nineteen kids and one teacher at an elementary school in Texas. There are no words I can offer that will address this act, other than my deepest condolences and my certainty of the perpetrator’s suffering in Hell.

Yet another act of evil, piling on top of an unending mountain of travesties.  Gruesome acts of violence at the southern border, societal decay in our city streets, and groomers targeting our children. There is no lack of evil in our midst.

There is so much to fight against, and seemingly, so little to control.

So, how do we fight? I am no expert in combat nor in politics, nor in anything else, actually. But I think, in my admitted ignorance, that fighting, is necessary. Yes, in the Halls of Congress, yes, in the hallowed echo chambers of Twitter, but more importantly, in how we live.

I think every man who lives an honorable life pushes evil one step back. In the face of all the temptation to sell out, to give in, to hand over your principles for a touch of comfort, the man who retains his honor is an impossibility. A surprise.  If the Journey is all we have, then a worthy Journey we must make. 

I still think the world can make honorable men. I still think the Journey can be meaningful, no matter the Destination.