There is a greenbelt a short walk away from my home.  People walk through it, going from somewhere to somewhere else, and there is a bit of a beaten path that runs through it.  What always interests me is that the path isn’t straight.  There are bends in the path for no apparent reason, in areas of the greenbelt that are completely flat and obstacle-free.  Probably you live near a greenbelt, and, assuming it’s not completely covered with snow right now, you’ll likely notice similar winding paths.

It’s not hard to understand why it remains like that (less resistance following a path that’s already been beaten down rather than making a new one) but how did it get like this in the first place?  Were there obstacles at some point in the past that someone had to walk around, or did someone just wander and/or misstep at one point and ended up creating the somewhat winding path that someone else followed, until the bent path was beaten down?

I now want to use this idea of paths as a metaphor for our thinking.  Do we think in the most direct manner possible, or do our thoughts wander all around the place for reasons that haven’t existed for years?  Could we get things done a lot faster if we could think more directly?