Railway Tracks

I am reading 'The Zahir' by Paulo Coelho lately. The plot deals with a man desperately hunting for his lost wife. While on his hunt he comes across the railway tracks and wonders why the distance between the two tracks is 4 feet and 8 1/2 inches. It later strikes to him that it is there because ancient Roman war carriages were of that width.(The ideal distance between 2 horses kept side by side.) The author delves further and derives a beautiful analogy from it. He says people tend to follow the same beaten path from the point of their arrival to their final destination. That makes them prisoners of their personal history. The main desideratum of people's lives is to follow a plan. They never ask if the plan was created by another person or is their brainchild. And this is when they forget their dreams. How very true ? How many of us have the courage to question what we are and why we are the who we are ? We live our lives mechanically are always in a chase be it on the career front, the personal front or on the social front. Time to take some time off the race track buddy and seek the meaning of existance and enjoy the enery of love and life that is so prevalent.