Human beings are creatures of habit. Even if our behavior is not determined by instinct, we are certainly influenced by actions. It takes a considerable amount of time and energy and effort to develop habits and acquire useful knowledge and it is far easier to fall into existing patterns, far more efficient in time and energy, and far more comfortable as well. Not only is it easy for us to live in these habits during the course of our lives, but also it is easy to learn these habits from the past and to pass these habits on to others. Some habits will be passing fads that are forgotten almost as fast as they are learned, and other habits are so enduring that they last generation after generation.

Human beings are not the only sort of habit-formers whose slight inclinations can become deeply ingrown habits. Perhaps the most notable habit-formers of this world are rivers. What starts as a rut in the road can easily become a creek-bed under the right circumstances, and if there is enough water flowing for enough time, what starts as a shallow cut can develop into a massive canyon. Even areas where rivers change their channels, they often do so for reasons that are very habitual. Once enough silt has been laid down in a given channel, a river will change its course to seek an easier path towards the sea. The way that rivers work is habitual, and even if the specifics can be chaotic and contingent, the general patterns of their behavior, and the huge expense and difficulty of trying to counteract that nature [1] is easy enough to determine.

Where ruts in the road are the most tragic are when it comes to bad patterns of behavior that are passed through cultures or through families. Whether it is abusive behaviors within families or whether it is the way that hatred and violence can spread easily through mobs and societies through mimicking and imprinting. That which helps us to learn and acquire useful and noble habits can just as easily help us acquire destructive habits and patterns of thought and behavior that can have a great influence in our lives. Learning those pathways and working to counteract them is a task of considerable importance as well as considerable difficulty.

All of us have ruts in the roads of our lives. Some of these ruts are the kind that lead us to order the same foods nearly every time we go into a restaurant, or to buy the same items at the grocery store week after week, to the amusement of our friends and loved ones. Some of these ruts cause us to travel down the same familiar roads in our lives, either literally or figuratively. Some of these ruts lead us to be dutiful and hardworking people doing the same sorts of activities wherever we may roam. On the other hand, some of these habits may cause us (and others) great suffering because they lead us to sabotage success or relationships, or to engage in hurtful ways. We all have habits of some kind. These habits and patterns may be good, neutral, or evil. Learning our habits and examining them critically, not only for their repercussions but also for their appropriateness, and taking the effort to modify them as necessary, is a task of great importance and also considerable difficulty. It is far easier to put the right ruts in the road than it is to change the course of a raging river, but we cannot always choose the tasks we are to face, but rather to deal with them as best as possible.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/book-review-the-control-of-nature/