'The Road'

Yesterday I read a book. (Which explains there being no entry here!)

That's not all I did, certainly: I was at the shops, doing some washing, out in the garden, writing some letters, catching up on a whole load of different things.

But I read a book. One of the pleasures of having a break or holiday. You can do that sort of thing.

Read a book. As in the whole of a book. In one sitting.

It was called The Road. 300 and something pages. And in some ways pretty depressing stuff. About the end of the world.

It's a book in the mould of The Odyssey (from a long time back) or Cold Mountain (more recently). A journey. A father and son journeying south. For what? They couldn't really say. To where? Again, they couldn't really say.

Just journeying south. In something that is half-way house between despair and hope.

In some ways it's a pretty graphic picture of the outlook and perspective of the way our generation views the world.

I hadn't read twenty pages of the book (it's an easy read) before I was asking myself, where on earth is this going? And yet I was rapidly gripped. Enthralled. And kept on travelling on with these two nameless characters, the father and the son (interesting in itself!).

But that perhaps is the point. Where are we going? What is it all about? Why don't we just give up in rank despair concluding that there isn't any point in going on?

I guess because some deep and basic instinct keeps insisting that there's more to life than merely our survival. And down the generations as we keep on with this journey in the face of all the odds, maybe it will prove to be worthwhile.

Relationships. Love. Community. The good guys and the bad guys. God and life.

In the mixed-up, messed-up world in which we live our lives today, I guess it isn't easy to discern what life is all about and what its meaning is. Or even if there is such point and purpose.

The Road. And Jesus called himself the Way. It's a journey. No mistake.

We don't have all the answers. But we keep on journeying south. With him. The Son.