THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
                         By Robert Mauro

     One of the hardest things about love and life is being
courageous enough to take chances, especially when it comes to
loving yourself, God, or another person.  It takes a great deal
of self-esteem, and the ability to think positively.  Some of us
with disabilities and without have had our self-esteem crushed
for one reason or another.  We find it hard to think positively. 
As a result, some of us are afraid to love.  We're afraid we're
not good enough.  We're afraid of rejection.  We're afraid of
being hurt.  I've done a lot of research in this area and have
found a book I highly recommend: Dr. M. Scott Peck's THE ROAD
LESS TRAVELED.
     Dr. Peck, a psychiatrist, explores life, love and religion. 
He talks about our life map, created not always by ourselves, but
by fundamentally ridged religion, family, school, and
society.  This ridged road map traps some of us on a narrow road,
but we can re-write that road map, widen that once narrow path
and live a fuller, happier, healthier life.  Dr. Peck tells you
how.
     In the second section of his book, Dr. Peck goes on to
explain the difference between falling in love and real love. 
Falling in love is biological, genetic.  Peck says it's a "trick"
our genes play on us to draw us into marriage.  It's a way of
getting us to continue the species.  Sex is the turn on here. 
You are driven by a strong sexual impulses to mate, to reproduce. 
But this passion soon cools.  The honeymoon ends and you and your
spouse begin to drift apart.  With real love, however, the
initial passion mellows into a deep, enduring friendship.  You
don't need to mold or change each other into your ideal
mate/lover.  You accept the person as he/she is.  Real love is
when two people are perfectly happy and capable of living on
their own, but choose to be together.  They don't need to be
together.  They want to be.
     Finally Dr. Peck tackles religion...well grace.  He says
that rigid, fundamentalist religion often creates a road so
narrow, some of us become stalled, trapped, unable to move
forward.  Some religious authorities fill us with fear of a mean
and vengeful God, who will damn us forever to Hell if we turn
from the "right path."  This causes some to leave our religion
and to abandon God.  Dr. Peck so lovingly says we need to see God
not in the mean and vengeful image often created for us by
narrow, vengeful, so-called religious authorities.  Instead, we
need to see God in the wonderful world of forests, birds,
animals, the sea, the sky, even the stars.  God didn't create a
narrow path for us, says Dr. Peck, but a wonderfully open world
filled with love and beauty.
     God is also within us, says Peck.  In a way, God is our
Unconscious trying to tell us how to grow.  Mental illness can
happen when we constantly try to repress the Unconscious.  Our
Conscious mind refuses to follow what our Unconscious mind is
telling us.  This refusal to follow our Unconscious can lead to
anxiety, depression, and panic attacks.  Ultimately it is a fear
to grow, a fear to leave a stifling marriage, a fear to become
more independent, a fear to take a chance on love, or even a fear
to tackle life outside our safe little bubble.  Those who best
conquer their fears and neuroses are those with a strong "will to
grow."
     When you consider this wonderful book, THE ROAD LESS
TRAVELED, you come to see it is, indeed, all about love.  Love
for ourselves.   For others.  For God.  We are good people.  And,
yes, some roads are a bit more frightening to travel down (since
we must be the sole navigator and not rely on directions from a
Church or a State or a Parent).  Moreover, we must believe in our
heart and in our mind that the road less traveled is truly filled
with wonder and beauty.  All we need is the belief in ourselves
to venture forth.
     In conclusion, we must think positively, not let our fears
and doubts control us.