I live in an area in which there are paved and unpaved roads. Some of the unpaved roads are little more than rutted tracks. The terrain is mountainous, and thick with eucalypts. My home is nestled in an ancient rain forest.

The arterial roads in the Dandenong Ranges, where I live, are bitumised. Of the other roads, many are made of packed earth. Some are covered with gravel. The surface of the dirt roads, largely because of the steep terrain, is uneven. There are deep depressions and wash-aways.

My wife and I love to go walking in our local area. One favourite track leads along bitumised roads, dirt roads and bush tracks. It includes a brief section of the Puffing Billy track, a small-gauge railway that winds its way through the hills. This refurbished railway, run by volunteers, is a major tourist attraction.

These walks afford time for reflection. The natural beauty of the area encourages contemplation.

One day, while taking this route, I began reflecting on the difference between paved and unpaved roads. This chapter is an outcome of that reflection. [263]

Paved Roads

Our society has a preference for paved roads. There are a number of reasons for this.

Advantages

Paved roads are a practical necessity in an industrial, largely urban economy. Large numbers of people and products need to be transported to far-flung locations. Very few work in areas where their homes are located.

Industrial economies require paved roads. This does not imply that those communities that prefer unmade roads are any less civilised, or that they are necessarily opposed to modernization. Even those fascinated by less developed road systems are dependent for the necessities and luxuries of life on a road system appropriate to the industrial base that supplies them with both.

It is assumed, if a society is progressing, that its progress will be evident in the quality of its roads.

On occasions, governments in less industrially developed nations have built impressive roads, sometimes through local villages, roads that are inappropriate and out of character. The money spent on the roads could have been spent on social services. The roads were built to make a statement. Unfortunately, these statements have highlighted the sense of national inferiority they were intended to disguise.

Cars, as well as trucks and semi-trailers, are dependent upon adequately paved roads. Vehicles are not as sturdy as once they were. [264]

We have also become used to a level of comfort that unpaved roads are less likely to provide.

Our society values speed. We are in a hurry. While this is one of our basic pathologies, it is also a fact of life for most people. Our developed economies have locked us into a systemic freneticism. We compete with each other to offer the cheapest product in the briefest possible time. The distribution of our product, unless it can be offered exclusively via the phone or Web, is dependent on a rapid transport system, and therefor on paved roads.

Paved roads also suggest that we are going somewhere. They unconsciously, though erroneously, assure us that our lives have purpose. This illusion of purposefulness often lacks substance.

Paved roads convince us that we are in control of our destiny, particularly when they guarantee that we can return the way we have come.

Paved roads are also safer than unpaved roads.

Nations need to defend themselves. An adequate system of roads is essential to the rapid deployment of troops.

Disadvantages

In spite of these benefits, paved roads have their disadvantages.

Paved roads, by inviting additional traffic, can become congested. [265]

Paved roads transport a greater volume of people to ecologically sensitive areas, which increases the likelihood that we will further damage the environment.

Roads, ribbons of asphalt, reinforce a linear concept of time. The understanding that we live in an environment dependent on cyclical processes, on the progression of the seasons, recedes from our awareness.

Furthermore, the linear concept of time, by reinforcing the myth of progress, renders us less inclined to critique the "progress" we appear to be making. Paved roads encourage us to consider progress an unalloyed benefit.

When we travel paved roads we normally do so at speed, which means that we do not have the time to attend to the landscape. We do not see what is there to be seen.

Because paved roads allow us to speed, they increase the likelihood that we will be seduced into constructing a world of illusion, where we lose touch with even the most basic practical realities. As young children, growing up in such an environment, we imagine that water comes from a tap, that meat comes in polystyrene packages, that milk comes from cartons, and that our faeces magically disappear down a water closet!

Other Areas

The tendency to prefer paved to unpaved roads is evident in other areas.

We are more likely to express a preference for established ideas than for fresh insights. This is true in most disciplines, from art and literature to physics. [266]

Because we belong to communities, and because these communities espouse common ideas, we are reluctant to make new connections that deviate from, or contradict received opinion.

A preference for novelty, other than novelty for novelty's sake--which often represents little more than a desire to be noticed,--is likely to ostracize us. It is the fear of ostracism, reinforced by a loss of security associated with the unknown, which cements us into a preference for the known, for the paved road.

We also demonstrate a preference for the known in our actions, in the way we do things.

While the development of habitual behaviour benefits us, in the sense that we do not have to think through repetitive actions every time that we perform them, habit also tends to stultify creativity. It is easier to follow through a course of action with which we are familiar than to devise new, streamlined, or more effective ways of doing things. This principle can be seen to hold true whether we are taking a particular route to the train station, organising a function, clearing the backyard, or making a speech.

A preference for paved roads is also obvious in the way we nurture and heal ourselves. This preference is evident in the food we eat, the medical attention we seek, the exercise we engage in, and the books we read.

Unpaved Roads

There is a certain attractiveness about unpaved roads. [267]

We are reminded of earlier times when there were no paved roads. Unpaved roads, particularly in picturesque settings, evoke nostalgia.

When we reflect upon a past in which people survived because they were able to make do in harsh circumstances, as we are encouraged to do when we use unpaved roads, we are reminded of our capacity for invention and survival.

Unpaved roads link us with the past, affording us a sense of history and rootedness. They also remind us that we are part of a broader continuum, links in an extended history continuing into the future.

Unpaved roads encourage us to travel more slowly, to challenge the lifestyle that has ensnared us, and which keeps us on the run. When we travel slowly we also have time to observe the territory through which we are travelling.

Unpaved roads, by slowing down the speed at which we travel, and by reducing the risk of pollution, allow us time to commune with ourselves, with others and with elements of the landscape.

Because unpaved roads slow us down, there is less road-kill. There is a relationship between speed, efficiency and damage.

A preference for unpaved roads would help convince us that we must maintain a balance between development and the preservation of the ecosystem.

Walking occasionally on unpaved roads would also help us to embrace the landscape with our souls. It would teach us to blend, in our essence, with others, with animals and [268] vegetation, with what we often refer to as inanimate objects, and with the Spirit Presence that sustains the universe.

Other Areas

There is a fascination with the unknown, with the untravelled in most areas of human endeavour.

Exploring ideas, searching for connections between seemingly unrelated notions, expanding one's horizon, and working for fresh syntheses is exciting for those intrepid enough to venture beyond commonly held beliefs. This is a safer procedure, in pluralistic democracies, than it is in circumstances where non-conformity threatens the stability of the state.

While it is still possible for theologians to be ex-communicated, or silenced, theorists today enjoy a much greater freedom than did their predecessors. This does not mean that current orthodoxy does not seek to coerce opinion, as Manning Clarke discovered when he challenged the authority of Marxist historians at the University of Melbourne in the 1940's, but it does mean that social isolation has replaced decapitation as a means of silencing those who wish to follow their own guidance, rather than the received opinion of the establishment. Finding one's own way, while continuing to respect the wisdom of the past, and of one's peers, is a fascinating and rewarding process.

Ever so slowly, academic and scientific disciplines, which have been concerned with similar issues, but have hitherto refused to talk to each other, are beginning to dialogue. [269]

The East is appropriating the wisdom of the West, and the West the wisdom of the East. This cross-fertilization is a slow process, but the rewards are significant.

Exploring new ways of doing things, forced on us by invention and necessity, is opening up unprecedented possibilities for the future. If we are to survive on this planet, these possibilities must be grasped.

Devising new ways of approaching old issues is satisfying for those who have the temerity to dream up new solutions, whether they are scientists in state-of-the-art laboratories, or inventors, without the advantage of academic qualification, working out of garages.

I enjoy making furniture, though I possess neither formal training nor the sort of machinery professionals take for granted. Devising new, and less expensive ways of achieving results is profoundly satisfying.

Working on self-nurture and self-healing, for their own sake, and to help others, is an exciting adventure because it continually thrusts us into the unknown.

Travelling unpaved roads can be scary because it takes us beyond our competencies and presents us with paradigms dismissed by many of our peers. Over recent years, however, there has been a greater readiness on the part of farmers, medicos and psychologists to consider the value of alternative approaches to farming, medicine and psychology. [270]

Dangers

It is important to appreciate that there are dangers and disadvantages associated with using unpaved roads.

We need to watch for ruts, washaways and loose gravel. Because we need to be cautious, and travel more slowly, we must allow more time to reach our destination.

Pioneering exploration in any field demands caution--a careful testing of new procedures and preliminary confirmation, from others, that the approach we are taking has some legitimacy. This does not mean that we should expect that others will agree with our tentative, or even final conclusions. There is always room for difference of opinion.

There is sufficient historical evidence to suggest that the unorthodox opinions of one generation can become the orthodoxy of the next. However, this should not be taken to imply than unorthodox opinion will always be vindicated. Nonsense can pose as truth, and will sometimes seek to justify itself on the basis of the fact that many of the world's great scientific minds experienced initial rejection. In a majority of instances, however, tentative theories are rejected because they are ill-informed, or poorly constructed.

Beneficiaries

It is salutary to remember that we are the beneficiaries of those who have taken unpaved roads.

This is evident when we consider medical treatments, benefits accruing from the discoveries of scientists like Newton and Einstein, as well as helpful insights from philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, biologists and physiologists.

Paved and unpaved roads

We need both paved roads and unpaved roads. [271]

Whether we opt for a paved or unpaved road will depend upon circumstances. In some situations it is more fitting that we travel by a known and well-constructed route. There are other occasions when it is more appropriate to select an unpaved road; to explore a road less traveled.

An Invitation

Because most prefer paved roads, I am inviting you to explore unpaved roads, roads less traveled.

Travelling unknown, unpaved roads involves an element of unknowing, a willingness to explore that with which you are not familiar. This can be scary, but it has a romance all of its own.

In order to explore the unfamiliar we must begin with an element of openness. This openness includes a capacity for receptivity, an ability to listen for the accent of grace in the ideas that tumble into our minds. We also need a reasonable degree of security, and the ability to recognise that we know very little. We should also be cautious--not timid, but cautious. [272]

[ROI 261-272]