Passage

We call it a Passage for a reason

This isn't a trick question, but what do you see here? Rocks? A gap in the rocks with the sea behind? An opportunity to enter a passage, and see what's on the other side? 
      Or are you one of those rare people who looks through gaps automatically, ignores the rocks and their jagged edges, their attempt to block any further exploration? Many of us see the rocks first, and focus on them. We wonder if there's room to fit through the gap, to make the passage? Or if we'll be able to get back through once we wedge our way into the narrow gap? Another concern is what lies just beyond, and whether or not we'll be safe once we make the passage? If we consider all the passages we've made since we let go of our mother's hand the first day of school and walked into that towering building alone, or left for basic training, or walked into a job interview for a position we knew was critical to our future we can't help the fear and physical adjustment that holds us back. But looking back, what we see is a history of success and satisfaction at having made the passage. And the view from beyond all those rocky passages has always been wider, clearer, more expansive and better. 
       I had an example of this yesterday when a student colleague pushed me through a gap of my own making. I thought I'd identified a deficiency in a piece of writing, a missed opportunity by an established writer to use her experience to expand her essay and make it stronger. The subject concerned her friend's struggle with cancer, and his subsequent death. The author chose not to include details of the patient's ultimately unsuccessful battle with his disease, and I judged that the paper may have been stronger had she included those details. My colleague pointed out that, on the contrary, using those details, exhibiting items her deceased friend may not have wanted to be made public showed a grace and restraint that the author should have used, and did. It was a conscious effort to strengthen the paper by omitting details. Less is indeed more. By choosing the reverential over the exhibitionistic, she made the passage from exploitive to considerate. Just because we can does not mean we should. It was a point well taken, and one I will keep in mind in all future writing. Passages like that are educational as well as informative. There's a difference.