Scott Peck on personal roadmaps and dedication to reality

Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life.  If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are, and if we have decided where we want to go, we will generally know how to get there.  If the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost. (p. 44)

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By the end of middle age people have given up the effort.  They feel certain that their maps are complete and their Weltanschauug is correct (indeed, even sacrosanct), and they are no longer interested in new information.  It is as if they are tired.  Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death exploring the mystery of reality, ever enlarging and refining their understanding of the world and what is true. (p. 45)

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Rather than try to change the map, an individual may try to destroy the new reality.  Sadly, such a person may expend much more energy ultimately in defending an outmoded view of the world than would have been required to revise and correct it in the first place. (p. 46)

~ M. Scott Peck, M.D., The Road Less Traveled (1978), "Dedication to Reality"