Castles and Paths

Early in the morning, while it was still dark, I went out for my first run of the new year.

I’ve run this route many times.

The path doesn’t change.

The scenery always does.

New houses appear.

Old ones disappear.

The path is familiar. Everything around it keeps changing.

I didn’t expect it, but once I noticed it, it felt obvious.

That quiet moment stayed with me.

Long before castles, we built paths.

We moved, traded, explored.

Paths emerged naturally. And they endured.

If you look at old maps, cities expand, shift, sometimes fade.

But streets remain.

We evolve around roads.

Castles came later.

They were built to protect what had accumulated.

Resources. Power. Control.

Walls made sense when uncertainty was high.

But once built, they need constant energy to preserve what’s inside.

Paths work differently.

They connect rather than contain.

Boundaries still exist, but they emerge naturally.

Sometimes even paths turn into castles.

When controlling access matters more than enabling flow.

Paths don’t grow as straight lines.

Neither does progress.

Over time, castles lose relevance.

Paths remain, even when those who control them change.

I see the same pattern everywhere.

In careers.

In relationships.

In organizations.

In technology.

In countries.

Am I building a castle to defend,

or shaping paths that will still matter as everything around them changes?