Wilderness. This word once made me march through my imagination and it was more like an adventure trek. Just me creating a path through dense undergrowth in a strange forest. Such were the dreams of a teenager. I could see me stopping to examine every mossy, gnarled, dappled, or tangled space as if expecting impenetrable, shadowy, and cryptic mysteries at any moment. I was also making decisions and always moving through this wilderness. Looking back, I now know that we there is an infinite way of defining wilderness. No, not just untamed and wild imagination but almost every real-world situation. The wilderness has always been a powerful metaphor for the unknown, the challenging, and the transformative. Everywhere. At any age. For everyone.

I knew then and I have continued to have faith in my being able to find or create a path in any wilderness… and the path will be found. This is because the right path always exists. It just isn’t visible all the time. Over time, I have discovered that when one door closes, another opens. All we need to do is walk through and walk right in the heart of whatever it is that we want. Reminds one of a story by Ted Chiang that had the Alchemist’s gate in it.
Some of us believe that life imitates literature, history, and politics – or is it the other way round? – whatever be the case, there is wilderness everywhere and there is always someone blazing a path through it.
In ‘The forest of enchantments’ by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, we have Sita navigating through literal and figurative wilderness, emerging stronger and more enlightened. There are books from nearly every genre where at least one character has the resilient strength to show a way to others… and, in a way, it is these other characters too who believe they have found the path that they wished for.
Look at the struggle against apartheid in south Africa where people of that country did manage to find a path through the wilderness of racial segregation and oppression. Even though it was Nelson Mandela and the ANC or the African National Congress who got all accolades, it is the common men and women of that country who made it all happen. They were the ones who helped Mandela navigate through the treacherous political and social landscape there.
Another prime example is the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was the oppressive regime that was akin to wilderness… those were times when a mere wall stood as a barrier to freedom and unity for nearly three decades. In this case it was the dissidents, activists, and ordinary citizens who found a path through this wilderness and the destination was reunification of Germany.
Even the act of finding a new answer, a new route, a new explanation is like finding a path through the wilderness… anything between the wilderness of ignorance and the wilderness of isolation. Look at what Christopher Columbus did in 1942. He walked through the skepticism of his contemporaries, faced the unknown, and yet managed to begin a new era of exploration. And colonization… though that is another form of wilderness that he infected our world with. But that is an entirely different story.
As Desmond Tutu said: ‘Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness’. It is the stubborn spirit that does not rest until it finds its path that matters. It is this spirit that has kept me going all these years. Confusion can go on unabated for years, but clarity cannot remain away forever. That change is what is inevitable… though we must necessarily ‘plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance’, as Alan Watts wrote.
I agree with Albert Camus as he found within him an invincible summer even in the midst of winter. True to every one of us. After all, challenges are meant to be overcome.
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Arvind Passey
Written on 03 February 2025
1 comments
Sheetal says:
Feb 4, 2025
Congratulations Sir for writing such a Motivating article.
Yes, I truly believe that Hope is the only thing that is stronger than fear.