The Intersection

what direction, what direction?
death? or action?
life begins at the intersection-
what direction, what direction now?
-Faust, Midas, and Myself-- Switchfoot



Where does life begin, then? What is the intersection? Is it death, or action, or a new direction?

Intersections are typically the places where two or three streets cross each other; some cars turn, some stay their course, and some have to wait their turn to move on. There are rules that one must follow, and breaking them can have serious consequences.

In geometry, intersecting lines are lines that cross over each other, sharing exactly one point, then continuing on infinitely, never touching again. The intersection, in this case, is that exactly one point.

The other thing I think of instantly is that stupid commercial that’s always on during the positive rock show for “crosswalk.com, the intersection of faith and life.” In this instance, the intersection is the place where two things meet, and in the case of faith and life, hopefully continue along beside each other for a time.

Occasionally, then, as it is in geometry, two lives touch at exactly one point and move on, never meeting again. There are some people who you meet once, or who write a book or sing a song that touches you at exactly one poignant point when you need it most. Perhaps you meet them, or hear the song, or read the book, again, but you are never changed in quite the way you were at that moment. At that point, a new thread is formed, another tiny piece of a life that is still barely beginning.

At other times, you find your path crossing that of another. Sometimes you have no choice but to wait and allow them to pass you by, or you must turn down a way separate from the van beside you, or the car behind you, or you can only stay the course despite whatever others are choosing to do. Each of these decisions at each of these intersections create another sliver of life; every bend in the road is a new, however insignificant, beginning.

However, these same intersections are also where collisions are most frequent. Whatever the cause, crashes can be simple disagreements that result in ameliorating some issue. On the other hand, sometimes all parties emerge bent and broken. These painful experiences can be used to start over in a relationship, or an endeavor, or anything, or they can drag everyone involved down inside their own anger to forget that you had a life at all.

Many of life’s intersections are one-time occurrences, like car crashes and crossing lines, with a lasting impact. But some things, like faith and life, find themselves crossing each other’s courses again and again, and these are the intersections that renew life with every sunrise. Sometimes two travel parallel paths, sometimes are separated by infinite points, and occasionally intertwining again for only moments before moving on, then crossing, then pressing onward again. The journey cannot halt for old friends to catch up.

At the beginning of time, a snake slithered across a woman’s path, and the two were destined to correspond for ages to come. Politicians disputed, swords resisted, and somewhere in the midst of sheer imperfection, two wooden beams met to become the greatest intersection of all: faultlessness meeting wholly with shortcoming, so that life might begin at that place.

And today, automobiles wait impatiently at red lights, and humans shake hands at introductions and business meetings, and paths weave in and out of others as new things begin. Nothing can truly pass away, end, unless it is contained in a completely separate plane—and even there, it extends into eternity, where the hammers pounding darkness into the divine still echo a message of new life.

Life begins at the intersection.