OUR QUEST FOR THE UNKNOWN

by Larry Tyler

I often wonder why we have this built-in urge to know the unknown. We feel a need to know what is down that overgrown path or who lived in that deserted house and why did they leave. When I came across a deserted railroad track during my travels, I would wonder why it stopped coming here and why the tracks end by the river.

We seem to feel that we must travel far and long to find life’s mysteries. I traveled the highways and byways of the Deep South with its ghosts and dark legends; yet, in the end, I had many experiences and met some fascinating people, but I found no true magic and many mysteries but no answers.

Then sometimes you find something magical in your backyard like a 1913 penny when you rake the yard or a small crystal ball wedged into the crook of a tree. One year we had sunflowers bloom into enormous flowers, yet we never planted them or flowers that disappeared in winter and bloomed years later.

Perhaps we just like the road as a way to comfort our introverted side. It is not really about the unknown. Maybe, it is just about the search. It could be that we are not even looking for answers or mysteries at all. Sometimes we explore for the sake of the quest. After all the quest is a search for knowledge and in our quest for the unknown, we learn about life and even more about ourselves.

Point Of View

The answers to the universe are held in a drop of water, and perhaps, we may find ourselves within the solitude of a dirt road or the ruins of a deserted farmhouse. In the quiet of the morning, I sit alone within my garden, and for that moment in time, I truly understand the unknown.