In 1995, there was a fantasy book by fantasy author Garth Nix called ‘Sabriel’, which tells the story of a student named Sabriel who was forced to venture into the magical Old Kingdom in order to find her missing father. In the book she says: “Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?”. In our society, there are many circumstances in life where it seems fate has carved out a path for the person, such as a family-inherited business or the school system. In the painting ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus’ and the scientific essay ‘Coming to Our Senses’, both literary works had shown that humans should view life as a way to set decisions to achieve whether or not they decide to ‘go with the flow’ or not. For the most part, people should make decisions for the present and future, even if it means to stay in the designated path already set for them.
To start off, in life people are expected to make decisions on their own. One such painting during the Renaissance period which shows that idea was named ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus’ by Pieter Breughel the Elder. In the bottom right corner of the painting, right below the image of the ship, there shows Icarus, small and insignificant, drowning helplessly in the sea. The reason Icarus is drowning all alone in the sea was because, based on the original myth, he felt confident and wanted the experience of freedom to fly high in the skies. Flying too high close to the sun results in the melting of Icarus’s wax-attached wings and led to him drowning at sea. Although Icarus had made a terrible decision which led to his death, his consequence was due to his own instantaneous decision. His failure, different from the many Greek myths, was not a punishment given from the Gods, but a mere decision made by a mortal. Although Icarus had made a terrible decision which led to his death, his consequence was due to his own instantaneous decision. His failure different from the many Greek myths was not a punishment given from the Gods but a mere decision made by a mortal. Although the ploughman’s work is most likely laid down by society, the ploughman looks to be working hard and not straying away from his work. In truth, he is doing his work for the sake of his survival and probably for his family. Showing that the ploughman is hardworking doing his job illustrates his care for his life and survival for himself and maybe his family at home. There are many situations in life where life sets the path and limits are set, but people can choose whether to follow the path or leave it if they desire.
In a scientific article entitled ‘Coming to Our Senses’, Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out the idea of how humans are able to make decisions to help themselves for future needs. He stated: “Discovering new ways of knowing has always heralded new windows on the universe that tap into our growing list of nonbiological senses” (Tyson, 178-180). In other words, human evolution is only given a limited amount of senses; however, people also have the capacity to use their brains and come up with solutions that can help future people improve their range of senses like glasses and hearing aids. Looking at a scientific sense, the human body is limited to what it already has, but modern technology has shown that, throughout the history of sciences, people are able to bypass the human limits and make rational decisions to help future scientific problems. “Whenever this happens, a new level of majesty and complexity in the universe reveals itself to us, as though we were technologically evolving into super sentient beings, always coming to our senses” (Tyson, 180-183). With a high level of intelligence, humans are shown to be able to pass all other living beings through their unique skill to plan ahead and build processes for technological innovations to come. To live a fulfilling life, humans should do a mix of making decisions to live life at the moment but they should also plan ahead when dealing with bigger issues such as applying for jobs and car maintenance. Overall, people should view the world as a mixture of short-term and long-term decisions because that’s how evolution has made humans to become.
The dilemma of whether the path chooses the person or the person chooses the path reminds me of the time when my dad cut part of his job hours to dedicate to taking care of his parents, my paternal grandmother and grandfather. When I was around 10 days old, my grandpa suddenly was rushed into the hospital. After the hospital stay a few days later, my grandpa came out as half-paralyzed, with a high blood pressure, diabetes, and a multitude of other health symptoms that led him unable to work normally anymore. My family was very family-oriented believing in the Vietnamese tradition of giving respect to parents, so my dad decided to cut part of his job time to dedicate some of his time to become a caretaker for his grandparents. His caretaking job also gave him money which was also a bonus along with his regular job now part-time. Right now, my grandparents are in their nursing homes now because they’ve gotten too old, but my dad’s decision shows that even though life directs him to take care of his sick parents, he still does it because that is what he wants to do and what a good son should do.
After analyzing the quote from the book ‘Sabriel’ “Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?”, the correct answer is most likely both. Both choices have their separate pros and cons, but in short, humans should consider the path that they are given and also be able to make their own necessary decisions. People don’t have to follow the path; they could also view the path they are given like a hint or some kind of motivator to help them make decisions. Either way, the whole idea of human perspective is that everyone has their own motivations, and whether they decide to stick to the path or not solely depends on what they plan to do in the future.