Donald Braun's Blog

In the Journey From Ennuied, Eloy is on a very long trip and has endured much. He is wondering if he will meet anyone kind and caring on his journey when he is dumfounded by an experience with the most lovely flowers he has every seen. This is a metaphor for romantic love. Who of us cannot remember those first loves, the emotions, the excitement, and the pleasant surprises.




"The rose stood upright and strong—a lone blossom among the plain and ordinary rocks, dirt, and plants. I sat down to examine the flower more closely. All of the other roses I had seen had stalks covered in sharp thorns that hurt to touch. This rose plant had parts that looked like thorns, but they were soft to the skin and almost tickled my hand."
-JFE Chapter 23

Invariably those first experiences of love and many others come and go. It can leave us feeling alone, even devastated and wondering if it was all worth anything.




Eloy finds a very interesting source of meaning in his experience of romantic love. For him, the loss of love, while painful, is not a complete write off. He comes to learn that whether or not the love lasted, it showed him by contrast that there is something worth searching for on the journey; something much better than the rocks and thorns.

Eloy reflects, "I came to believe that though the experience with the flowers was fleeting, this in no way lessened their connection to the beautiful music. The flowers also served a wonderful purpose in that they contrasted almost completely with the harsher aspects of the journey, showing me that I was still looking for a place I had not found."

Read much more in the Journey From Ennuied.

"I spotted something strange in the trees between Ennuied and the abyss. The tall green trees in the area were covered in brown spots that looked like some kind of blight. I looked more closely and found the spots were actually something hanging from the trees; there were more than I could possibly count. Dangling from strong branches, just a few feet above the ground, were structures of various sizes filled with people; some of the structures contained groups of people, while most carried just one. The structures themselves were very strange, with prison bars on the front and the back completely open to the air. The people inside looked forlorn and trapped, both gloomy and angry, yet any could have walked out the back of their cage at any time." -Journey From Ennuied p. 232

Justice Is Over-Rated

This passage is a metaphor for the power of anger and bitterness to imprison. We know that resentful and jaded people are not pleasant to be around and we can observe that nothing much good comes from all of the rage. In spite of this, anger is seductive; it allows us to channel our hurt and pain and provides us with focus in a quest for justice. The difficult reality is that justice is elusive and the real fruit of bitterness is emotional and spiritual death.

Seeing prisons in the trees, Eloy is incredulous and asserts that the prisoners should simply leave out the back way stating that their pain can't have been so bad as to keep them locked up in this way. A tear forms in the eye of Eloy's wise friend Khalid, "Friend, their suffering was that bad and worse; never-the-less, you are right. Perhaps you remember the abyss—the only way out is the back door."

The Back Door To Freedom



What is the back door? It is the only way out of bitter prisons. It is the courageous choice, again and again, in both thought and actions, not to seek punishment for the sources of our pain and to let the anger fade. The back door is a pathway the mysterious power of love and lowness described in The Journey From Ennuied.

This theme comes up regularly in The Journey From Ennuied, because these difficult choices come often in life and because they are a pathway to the mysterious power of love and lowness.

At least from time to time, most of us feel as though we are on a journey. The events of our lives pass in a way that feels a lot like travel. The big question we seem to face is whether there is any purpose to it all. Does our life consist of random events, or is there something behind it, something so significant that we can know everything is okay in the end?

The big problem is that we are faced with a dilemma. We often "feel" like there is something at work in our lives beyond random chance, but we can't explain it. In fact, it defies our efforts to explain. Some tell us that, "Everything happens for a reason." But we know that suffering is belittled by such trite sayings.

Why don't we consider a different way of thinking? Perhaps the significance in the events of our lives is both unexplainable and real beyond measure. What if we approach our lives as an opportunity to grow in generosity, kindness, and connectedness? Perhaps it is only here that we find the elusive significance we long for.

In The Journey From Ennuied, this way of thinking and being is termed the way of "Love and Lowness." In this understanding of our lives, nothing matters more than love and we access this love by allowing our life events to show us our inability to control. If we let go of control, and open our hearts to the way of love, perhaps we will encounter wonders we never imagined.

This is the message of The Journey From Ennuied. It is a message spoken by many wise people who have lived before us.

Curious? Check out The Journey From Ennuied.

The Journey From Ennuied