Milestones line the National Road. The old and replaced milestones are small obelisks about a meter tall, each with distances to the next significant destination. So, along the road travelers might encounter an obelisk that indicates, “Cumberland 42 miles” on the western side and “Uniontown 20 miles” on the eastern side. The milestones tell the traveler accomplishment and goal.
If you set milestones along the path of your life or your daily activities, do you see them as distances traveled or as distances to be traveled? Of course, nothing except attitude stops you from seeing both sides of a roadside obelisk. Which do you prefer to see? What you have done or what you have to do? And when you reach a particularly difficult goal, do you say to yourself, “Who would have thought?”
What if you don’t consider the journey successful unless you reach the destination inscribed in the stone on the side of your past travel, the side that indicates the distance to the next significant destination? Does failure to reach the next obelisk indicate overall failure?
What if the line of obelisks stretched into an indefinite distance? Isn’t that what life is? One more obelisk, one more obelisk, one more obelisk—anything short of reaching the next one is failure! Not necessarily.
The National Road (Route 40) was initially an outgrowth of trade when the Ohio Company needed an extension beyond the navigable portion of the Potomac River. Then the European Seven Years’ War spilled into the New World as the French and Indian War. Sites along the road could actually be thought of as milestones along the course of American history. National Road travelers encounter the place where General Braddock lies buried after a failed encounter with the enemy and where he gave George Washington the sash the young soldier cherished and wore throughout his presidency. Braddock’s last words, spoken to George Washington, were, “Who would have thought?” A few miles east of Braddock’s grave is Great Meadows, the site of Fort Necessity where George Washington lost a battle against the French and Indian forces.
Washington’s failure at Fort Necessity is a milestone in American history. For some, failing on that scale would mark the terminus of a journey. Obviously, Washington chose to see the failure differently. He did, after all, become the decided “Father” of the United States. Who would have thought?
So, let’s say that on a particular day you fail to reach the milestone you were determined to reach. How do you take the “failure”? Is that next obelisk standing as testimony to your failure? Or, rather, is it a potential for future attainment and achievement? In what context will you say, “Who would have thought?”
If you set milestones along the path of your life or your daily activities, do you see them as distances traveled or as distances to be traveled? Of course, nothing except attitude stops you from seeing both sides of a roadside obelisk. Which do you prefer to see? What you have done or what you have to do? And when you reach a particularly difficult goal, do you say to yourself, “Who would have thought?”
What if you don’t consider the journey successful unless you reach the destination inscribed in the stone on the side of your past travel, the side that indicates the distance to the next significant destination? Does failure to reach the next obelisk indicate overall failure?
What if the line of obelisks stretched into an indefinite distance? Isn’t that what life is? One more obelisk, one more obelisk, one more obelisk—anything short of reaching the next one is failure! Not necessarily.
The National Road (Route 40) was initially an outgrowth of trade when the Ohio Company needed an extension beyond the navigable portion of the Potomac River. Then the European Seven Years’ War spilled into the New World as the French and Indian War. Sites along the road could actually be thought of as milestones along the course of American history. National Road travelers encounter the place where General Braddock lies buried after a failed encounter with the enemy and where he gave George Washington the sash the young soldier cherished and wore throughout his presidency. Braddock’s last words, spoken to George Washington, were, “Who would have thought?” A few miles east of Braddock’s grave is Great Meadows, the site of Fort Necessity where George Washington lost a battle against the French and Indian forces.
Washington’s failure at Fort Necessity is a milestone in American history. For some, failing on that scale would mark the terminus of a journey. Obviously, Washington chose to see the failure differently. He did, after all, become the decided “Father” of the United States. Who would have thought?
So, let’s say that on a particular day you fail to reach the milestone you were determined to reach. How do you take the “failure”? Is that next obelisk standing as testimony to your failure? Or, rather, is it a potential for future attainment and achievement? In what context will you say, “Who would have thought?”
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