I love knowing that I have a choice, that my fate was not created for me and I am just a long for the ride. However, if I took the smoothest course, that is exactly what my life would feel like.

So, I don't.

I don't take the smoothest course because I want to see what is just around the riverbend (beyond the shore). Like the song states, life is constantly changing and flowing. Yet we as people tend to want to cling to whatever grounds us and keeps us in one place. No matter how much we pretend that life can never change, we are constantly aging.

We have a choice to play it safe or see what's just around the riverbend. Ironically, the song never let's us know what exactly is just around the riverbend. Maybe this is because we should individually want to find out for ourselves. Instead, it could imply that we should have the attitude of always wanting to know what is around the riverbend instead of being engrossed in the banks or the depths of the river. If all our hopes are up in the air, and all our fears are the unknown in the depths of the river, maybe the only solace is finding out what is beyond the shore and around the riverbend.

In the end, we are informed that the reason that some of us yearn for what is around the riverbend is what the Dream Giver is giving us. Because we use our imaginations to give us potential visions of the future, we use these dreams to propel us around the riverbend and forge something new amidst the homogenous. Instead of settling for the homogenous, we seek what can make us feel the most alive, what makes us feel like we are being most true to our individuality.

I love going just around the riverbend and beyond the shore because it reminds me that the present is always moving, so I should never be stuck in one moment. For instance, if I like one type of food 10 years ago, I may not like it now. Maybe I have long hair now, but 7 years ago I did not. Maybe my philosophy has changed in the past 4 years, so I should not be forced to only believe in one ideology if I felt that I was growing into believing in a new one. Perhaps one culture fits well in one environment, but not so much in a new environment.

If I never focus on the riverbend, then what I have now is what I will always have and no more.