THE HINTS- VITAL TO SUCCESS

[fundamental design]

I don't think he said "I could walk right straight to it." but "I could go right straight to it." Not much point except I am a stickler for accuracy, and of course you qualified the quote by saying you were paraphrasing. There may be a "I could walk right" quote but I don't recall it. My real point here is that he says goes right not left to get to the chest. Presumably it is right in the middle. All the people went "right past" it and not left past it, but they passed it one way or the other. I'm not clear as to whether the chest was on their left or right when they passed it.

Another belief of mine is that there are switch backs involved. I'm not clear as to whether he is saying don't take them or not. I know what he said at Moby Dickens but that was a bizarrely phrased question. The lady said something like: "will you find yourself switching back on yourself." That is paraphrased from memory and might be off a bit but it was phrased so poorly that it was meaningless. What does it even mean to "find yourself switching back." Like if you're walking along the trail will you find another copy of yourself "switching back"? Or will you somehow "find yourself" as in "discovering your true nature" or whatever it is that people mean when they talk about "finding" themselves. Forrest answered negatively but the question was phrased so poorly that he could answer any way he liked. When I thumb through TFTW I see only a few things that stand out, one of which is the "international not sign" through the small switch. I think at the very least that means don't take the smaller switchback. It might mean the bigger switchback is OK to take or maybe it means don't take any switchback. Another thing in TFTW that sticks out to me is the Underwood typewriter. There are a few more things in there that I think don't need mentioning.

The first part of your reply is in response to what Seannm laid out in a post he wrote...just to be clear.

It is interesting to read your thoughts in your second paragraph. Good stuff.