But in Dante, you've got an ordinary person, a mere poet, not a brave warrior. We each have to make a hero's journey. We postpone it at our peril. Dante shows us that. The weather in Dallas, at this moment, is a Dantean hell.
Birds are silent, trees are crisp brown.
This is a world brought to you, flame-broiled, by Burger King. It's our capacity to make one choice as opposed to another choice. Allums is saying that if you know what you really want, and you don't pursue it, you'll be consumed by it. You will lose your capacity to make clear commitments as long as there is that one major commitment that you avoid. Fence-sitters of this world have the worst of every fate.