The Biggest Dilemma In My Life

Dear Mr. Frost,

I have never before been face with the dilemma of having two ways and having to choose to go by one. What I would say is that in that specific case I would have another dilemma apart from choosing which way should I go through. My principles clearly state that you shouldn't mind what is done by other people, but you should be bothered by the actions you take when they are up to you. In this case the dilemma would be if that special situation was placed for me by another person or if I did it myself. The fact that the two ways were laid for me was done definitely by another person, but the fact that I have to choose which way I will take is an action that is up to me. If you happen to have some spare time and read the handbook I wrote called Handbook Of Epictetus you will find that in section four I say that always before you do an action you must say to yourself that it must all be in accordance with nature. That piece of advice has always worked for me in every event in my life but when I was faced with your event I had no way of choosing my way according to nature. First I thought that maybe I would just wait for a sign of nature to guide me like a butterfly or a gust of wind but then I saw that that was a very simple solution that could lead me through the wrong way.

When I heard your descriptions and read verse twelve I started to have an idea of which road I would choose. When you said: "No step had trodden black" (The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost), I imagined that the road had never been set feet upon and started to wonder why. Suddenly I jumped to the conclusion that if already other people had passed through it then it must mean that they had found something about that road and not the other road affect their decision. Maybe they were thinking as me at the beginning that I thought I would choose the one that people had walked through because maybe I could find another person in the way or some sign that people that passed through this road survived. Or maybe they thought about the good of the whole group and choose to go through the side that most people had already been through. In the last part of the poem you make a lot of emphasis on the fact that you were the one that chose the other road. When you made that emphasis in I did you mean that for your traits and abilities only you could survive in that road or only you meant to exalt the fact that you were a pioneer and the first one to try this road. After imagining the probable outcomes of each road I would probably end up choosing the one that no one except you had chosen. In my handbook in section seven I make a big emphasis in the fact that you must look towards saving yourself and not the rest of the group so meaning that most people went by the way that had been taken and that I would prefer to save myself I would choose the road not taken. It wouldn't really matter which road I chose because I am an actor in a play and my destiny is already set so either one I chose will be my destiny.

    Your Friend,

     Epictetus