The Road Less Traveled

The Road Less Traveled is in many ways, different. It is not your ordinary book that simply tells a story. This book allows you to see your life in a different perspective. It permits you to really think if the decisions you are making will affect you or your children in the long run. I had mix views on this book. At first I didn’t even want to read it, because of how much I disagreed with the first chapter. Then after the second chapter I realized what the books purpose was.

Scott Peck opened up his book, The Road Less Traveled; with the statement life is difficult. The first word that came to my mind as I read it was “duh.” I had my room mate read the first line and she proceeding to say, “Well you don’t have to be a doctor to figure that one out.” I agreed and then started to read a little further more into the book when he says, only when we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. So how come my life is so difficult? I know and understand that we can’t always have things go our way. So why I ask, is my life still difficult? It seemed like it took forever to get through the first chapter. Now I was worried about how long it would take to read the whole book. As much as I wanted it to, Chapter one didn’t capture my attention. It actually made it more difficult for me to sit down and focus on the next chapter. Difficult. There’s that word again. Reading chapter two shouldn’t be difficult for me according to Dr. Peck. I took his advice before I even heard it. Life is difficult. I can say it over and over again, but that won’t change that that’s the way life goes.

I was very apprehensive to read The Road Less Traveled. It is not the type of book that I would pick up at the book store. It sat under my bed for a week before I even took it out of the bag. When I actually decided to pick it up and read the first chapter, it proved that the book was exactly what I anticipated. A man who was going to try to make up excuses and give us advice on the things we do and don’t do in our life. As I struggled to make it through the first chapter I realized that I actually have to read a book that is teaching me common sense. If I was one Pecks patient’s, he would probably say that by me complaining about his views before I even read the book, is actually my way of procrastinating so I don’t have to read. In some ways that may be true, but I just find it hard to get into any book when you disagree completely with the first paragraph.

“Which part of the cake do you like better? The frosting or the cake?” Amazingly this question really caught my attention. Not because it was about food but because as soon has Peck asked his patient this, I knew what direction he was going it. Delaying Gratification is where I fell in