Why Go Into The Woods?

I know it's dangerous, it's really dangerous. Practically every person I meet tells me to stay away from these woods. "No one ever comes back," they tell me. "No one ever comes back." And I believe them too. Well, at least the rational part of me does. The logical part of me - the part that understands things like statistics and human mortality - tells me I won't be coming back either.

As I prepped for the journey, that rational part of me chided that I shouldn't be packing my backpack with supplies. When I walked out of my apartment it pleaded with me not to even open the front door. On the drive over it demanded that I turn off the ignition to my car and throw the keys away. Right now I'm only a few yards into the forest, and it's begging me to turn around and run, to escape the woods while I can still see the exit.

It's not that I disagree with the logic, I'm just ignoring it. I know that everything my brain is telling me, in fact screaming at me, is logically correct. It's absolutely correct - and absolutely irrelevant. Reasons don't matter because this isn't a choice. This is simply what has to be.

I'm not running away. And it's not suicide. I have no wish to die, and it's fully my intention to leave these woods when I've found what I'm looking for. Odds are that I probably won't, but there's no way anyone can know that for sure. Just because no one ever has doesn't mean no one ever will. But all the same, don't hold your breath waiting around for my return.

It's like when you're watching a horror movie and you yell at the beautiful starlet not to open the door because you just know the killer is hiding behind it. But of course she goes ahead and opens the door anyway, and the killer jumps out and stabs her. It's not about logic or reasons. It's her purpose to open the door, and that's what she has to do. Right and wrong don't even figure into the equation. If she wasn't there to get stabbed, there wouldn't be a movie. And she never would have existed at all.


I've written this down to try and give you answers to the questions you must be asking. And although it probably doesn't make much sense, this page is the only answer I have. It's difficult to describe a decision that has no basis in rationality. Why did I go? I guess the simplest way to put it is that I have to know what's in there. I must. This is my purpose. And I'm willing to accept the consequences of knowing, whatever those may be.

But as I said before, the reasons don't matter. The question of why I entered the woods is moot. The relevant question is what will happen now that I'm here. Will I be devoured by some horrible beast lurking behind the trees? Will I be enticed to stay in the woods by some fantastic discovery? Will I lose my direction and wander the forest forever? Or just until my supplies run out?

Was it worth it? Did I ever find what I was looking for?

I can't answer your questions here, not the ones that really matter. But the answers are out there to be had. And since you've come this far for them, perhaps you'll be willing to come a little further.

The answers do exist. Every question that can be asked has an answer.

But for some, you'll have to enter the woods to learn.