A Modern Day Parable (1)

A modern day parable: Be careful who you follow

Years ago my mother was driving from Delaware to New York. Somewhere along the way she entered an intensely foggy area. She turned on her lights, slowed down, and eventually could only crawl along, seeing only the white line on the right side of the road for guidance. She noticed that there were a number of cars behind her, with their lights on, also crawling very slowly, none of them looking to pass.

As she drove along, watching those few feet of white line that she could see on the right, eventually she noticed with astonishment that she was no longer on the highway! She had followed that right white line right into an exit, but fortunately one into a rest area. She kept on driving through the rest area, followed by, of course, the train of cars behind her, that had been following her, and not driving on their own. The little wagon train of cars eventually drove through the rest area and back onto the foggy highway.

My mother is a great driver, but a horrible spiritual guide. I'm glad that if people decided to follow her they were doing so only in their foggy driving. Though that could have ended up poorly, if she had left the road in what was not a rest area, but a sudden curve in a one-way exit.