The passage above is part of what God says to Knulp in their conversation. In the final chapter, “The End,” Knulp does little but lament and regret his life. He seems very different from the man who once loved his existence wholeheartedly. Why has he become so pessimistic about the life he lived?
I do not think such regret belongs to Knulp alone. We often look back on the past with nostalgia, and sometimes with regret. No life is perfect. Every life contains mistakes, but also joy and recovery, and we continue living through all of them. The important thing, therefore, is not to obsess over speed. Where I happen to be right now matters less than knowing where I wish to go and finding my own pace.
But why did Knulp choose such a way of life? Did he not wander without a clear destination? The novel nevertheless suggests that his life possessed a meaning of its own. Knulp's way of living may be far removed from the lives most of us aspire to. Yet through his long years of wandering, he awakened in many people a renewed longing for freedom. He enjoyed this precious, finite life perhaps more fully than anyone else. Maybe that was his destination all along: to live his own life to the fullest and share joy with others. I find myself wondering what it would mean to adopt such an attitude toward life.