Choosing the hard path.

Hercules was at a diverging path. Two goddesses appeared before him. One was dressed modestly and appeared decent in all regards to her demeanor and attire. The other was softer, rounder, took on an appearance with fairer skin to appeal to Hercules. She also dressed impressively, and cared deeply about her appearance.

The two women made offers to the young hero. Vice, in all her splendor, offered Hercules a life of pleasure where he would know no trouble for the rest of his days. The other woman, Virtue, candidly told Hercules that she would not offer him such things, nor deceitful flattery.

She offered him a life of hardship, but reward through the struggles he would face. It would be a life worthy of the Gods.

Throughout most of my life, I’ve chosen the path of least resistance. In some cases, it made sense. Walking home from school, I often took the quickest route I could. I didn’t spend a lot of time walking in my small town.

I also figured that since I was walking home and I had a fast metabolism, I could afford to eat a soft pretzel or two each day that I walked past the pretzel shop on the way home.

When I got home, I didn’t really do much worth noting. I either played video games or abandoned my home to hang out with friends. I neglected homework most of the time, or gave it half an attempt.

Pretty much any time that I had to face the discomfort of stillness or challenge, I found some anathema to soothe it over.

Can we imagine how Hercules would have turned out if he had chosen Vice’s path?

Instead of having a great heroic myth, we would have a great tragedy. Something of Nero’s like, or Caligula. Look at any tyrant king in history. There was almost always one commonality between them:

They freely, unapologetically, indulged themselves in their base pleasures.

I am glad that the myth was not a tragic one. Instead, we have a hero who conquered his weaknesses and became stronger. I used to wish that I had never chosen Vice’s path in my early years.

Thankfully, it is never too late to change. We may discover down one road that we were mistaken to travel it in the first place.

The good news is that roads are often interconnected. They have intersections, exits, and roundabouts.

We always can choose a different direction.