The Path of Least Resistance

On November 20, 1961 I turned 15 ½ and immediately dragged my parents to the DMV to get my learner’s permit. My parents were very conservative and, as a result, I had never been allowed to touch the controls of a car until that day. We dropped my mom off at home and then my dad drove us to a local department store parking lot.

The lot was huge and, unlike today, had no landscaping or parking bumpers, just white painted lines on asphalt. My dad reasoned, correctly, that before I hit the streets, I needed to learn the basics of controlling a car. Of course, the car jerked forward the first time I hit the gas and jerked even more when I tried to stop. After about an hour, I had learned to start, stop, turn, and drive in a reasonably straight line. Only then did we proceed out onto a veeery quiet local street with no parked cars in sight.

Over the next six months, I learned how to drive. I learned to follow the narrowest of roads. I learned that, to be safe and legal (and keep my license), I wanted to follow the correct path. For me, that became the path of least resistance. And like my vehicular education, I find that life in general follows paths…and they are always the paths of least resistance.

I know…I know, the path of least resistance has always been thought of as a bad thing, the easy way out. My response is no and yes. No, it is not always a bad thing, but yes, it is always the easy way out.

Now before you send for the men in white coats, let me offer you two examples to prove my point. First, a hypothetical example. An honest man is walking down the street and finds a wallet on the sidewalk. He opens it and finds $1,000 and a driver’s license which indicates the owner lives two houses down. What does he do? Because of the person he is, in his moral mind, he has no choice but to return the wallet to the rightful owner. He can’t even imagine keeping the wallet. Returning the wallet is his path of least resistance.

Need a real world example? Last week, my niece and nephew had the day after Halloween off from school. My wife and her sister took the kids to Disneyland for the day. My nephew, Ryan, LOVES Disneyland. For him, a proper trip starts when they open and ends when they close. But Ryan also wants to do well in school and so, in the early afternoon, he asked if they could go home because he wanted to finish his homework. This kid, who loves Disneyland, wanted to leave because, for him, his homework and doing well in school were more important than staying and playing. For him, leaving was the path of least resistance.

So the next time someone berates the path of least resistance, remember and be thankful, for the majority (I hope) of people in this world, that path is one of honesty and truth.