The road to Detroit

“Detroit”… “Motown”… “Motor City”… all the same town.  Many ways to get there.  Several highways head into the city.  So, if you took highway 75 to Detroit and made it into town, would you then decide that’s the only way to get there?  Would you stand on street corners, go door to door and proclaim to everyone “I have FOUND Detroit!  You must take highway 75 to get there!”… The first person to mention they took highway 53 to Detroit MUST be confused, right?  You KNOW from personal experience highway 75 gets you to Detroit!  There are signs all over highway 75 where it is WRITTEN – Detroit 5 miles… Detroit with arrows pointing the way for you… Highway 75 is the way to get to Detroit, any rational person can see that.

What if someone not only doesn’t take highway 75, but also decides they’d rather call Detroit “Motown” – or “Motor City”?... “Yep”, they’d say – “We took highway 96 to Motown yesterday”… well, that’s just wrong.  Wrong name, wrong highway – they obviously know nothing about Detroit.

Fact is, there are many ways to get to Detroit.  No one way is any better than any other.  One road might be more convenient than another depending on where you live, but – many roads lead to Detroit.  And no matter what you call it – it’s still Detroit.

Substitute “GOD” for Detroit.  So many names, so many ways to find God.  Why do people think if they’ve found God one way it’s the only way to get there?  Why does the name matter?  Allah?  Jesus?  Mohammed?... What road got you there?  Christianity?  Taoism?  Buddhism?...

No matter what you call it, it’s still God.  And there are many ways to get there.

Ram Dass, when he was younger, took LSD as a spiritual quest.  He gave some to his guru – more than any one man should have been able to handle.  It had no effect on the guru, leading Ram Dass to surmise “When you already live in Detroit, you don’t need to take a bus to get there”.

It is my goal to some day “live in Detroit”.  I’m willing to consider any and all paths that head in that direction.