Slow Havamal: 34

In the 34th verse, it’s noted that the walk to visit a bad friend is long and crooked, though he lives very near, and the walk to a good friend is easy, even if the journey is long.

The destination determines the journey to some degree. Or rather, our expectation of what we’ll find. Every step that winds us closer to a bad friend is a miserable one, even if it isn’t physically daunting. This is a function of attitude. What makes a walk good or bad? Of course the length and the terrain should have something to do with it. But so does what we find along the way. A walk of wandering exploration is different than a time-pressed trip, even over the same ground. It’s difficult to separate the experience of the travel from the reason that set us out in the first place. If it’s the obligation to visit a bad friend, and every time we take that particular path we find him, the path itself takes on a gloomy tint. ( Read more... )