Crossroads of the World

If you take a trip to 6671 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood you will come across a little mall called “The Crossroads of the World.” Sited next to the Eckankar Center where you can explore past lives, dreams and soul travel and a Catholic church. This mall was built in 1936.  In the middle of the mall is a building in the shape of a ship that sports a fifty foot tower toped by a revolving globe. Bungalows whose architectural styles are multicultural (Italian, Turkish, French, English, Asian, Cape Cod) run around the perimeter of the mall which also includes a wishing well and a light house. Throughout it’s long and sometimes scandalous history the Crossroads of the World has maintained a place in Hollywood  film history.

Many different places, at many different times, have claimed to be the Cross Roads of the World. This is the way Times Square markets itself and in ancient times people said “Omnes viae Romam ducunt” or “All roads lead to Rome” but it appears that Hollywood has become the new epicenter, the new crossroads of the world. No matter where they hail from, if a career in media is the goal, Hollywood is, at the very least a plateau that must be reached and crossed to achieve that goal and media born in Hollywood effects people world wide.

Just as the known world expanded when Rome conquered, Hollywood expands the world of perception every time new cultures, new perspectives and new technology are used to create innovative product for distribution. Our world view seems to expand in waves, an outgoing wave of physical exploration accompanied by a return of new knowledge. This knowledge becomes like a pebble dropped in water spreading outward in its turn, repeating and expanding exponentially.

There are crucial points in everyone’s lives, crossroads where we make decisions that alter our reality forever. Sometimes we recognize them as important decisions and at other times decisions are made and consequences reached without conscious choice. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says to themselves “I want to be a monster today” yet somehow monsters are created daily as are saints.  This is of course an exageration, as most of us are a little of both, but then, that's Hollywood.

There are legends about crossroads, some say that if you stand at a certain crossroad in the south at midnight you can sell your soul to the devil or if you are brave enough challenge him to a duel to win your heart’s desire.

History is rife with points where decisions were and are made that affect everyone.  Some potentially  catastrophic and some euphoric. The bottom line remaining that if no one had taken those chances, if no one had made those decisions to follow up on their ideas and dreams history would be static, advancement would cease and we would all be the worse for it. There is a quote by Anthony Robbins that, for me reflects the very essence of personal crossroads:

“You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget the past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don’t think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.”

Personal crossroads, when many individuals converge in one place or at one point in time, with a common idea or dream or attitude have a way of accumulating and becoming greater than we could ever imagine.