Falling Off the Wagon

Falling Off the Wagon: A Parable

You are the driver of a wagon, looking ahead, going down a road. You are also riding in the wagon, sitting on a pile of loose hay. The road is straight, curved, smooth. bumpy, wide, narrow: all the things a country road can be.

You keep falling off. You go along for a while and then you fall off. Sometimes it is because of the road, or maybe the horses shy at a rabbit, or the driver goes “gee-haw” without warning. Sometimes you fall off for good reason, sometimes for no discernable reason at all. You simply fall off the wagon.

You run to catch up, clamber back on, rearrange your body and your thoughts. You always feel good when you are safely back on the wagon, just you and the driver going down the road.

The next thing you know, you have fallen off again. You are surprised, irritated, frustrated. You have to catch up. Sometimes you panic that you won’t catch up. Sometimes you stop in the road and say, “To hell with it. I didn’t want to be on that wagon. I didn’t want to go down that road.” Then you run faster to catch up, get back on. You are desperate to get back on the wagon.

From a hillside high above the road you are a comical sight. There’s a long road and a driver and a wagon. There’s this person who keeps falling and running, climbing on, riding a while, then falling and running.

From a distance, it seems like a hard way to go down a road.