failed allegory

walking to work today i noticed three distinct types of sidewalk shoveling and thought there might be some sort of spiritual allegory going on. you be the judge. the first type of sidewalk i noticed (mostly because it was right outside my door) was the completely unshoveled sidewalk. this sidewalk had accumulated two to six inches of snow from saturday night and sunday. on monday, it was not icy and gave one a fairly good grip for walking. with all of the rain and warmth last night, however, it had become soup. very unpleasant to plod through. traction was tenuous and sloppy. the second type of sidewalk i came across was the completely shoveled sidewalk. this sidewalk had been scraped down to cement with a fair amount of effort and probably back pain. on monday, this sidewalk was treacherous. the snow had been removed but underneath was a transparent glaze of ice. monday, i cursed the slipperiness of the shoveled walk and thought myself wise for not having shoveled. but by today, the shoveled sidewalk was merely wet and as reliable as ever. the third type of sidewalk was the partially shoveled sidewalk. this sidewalk had been cleared early in the course of the snowfall saturday or sunday but then had not been revisited as the snow continued to fall and temperatures warmed, cooled, and warmed again. the result was fine when there was just snow on the ground sunday. it was actually easier to walk through than the icy, shoveled sidewalk. on monday, the light coating of snow became crunchy with icy and more difficult to navigate. by this morning, the partially cleared snow had melted and then re-frozen. the result was a thick but still transparent glaze of ice--unexpectedly terrible to walk over. you would need metal cleats to not fall on this stuff. one resulting question to make this into an allegory: was the sidewalk better or worse for not being shoveled? if we translate this over into a message of "religion" or "christianity" or something, could we say that the first person is completely unchurched, the second a die-hard believer, the third a person concerned with religion but not willing to make massive changes in their lives? i'm not sure, but this is what i was thinking as i walked to work. now i wonder if it was just dumb musing. where's a good quote when you need one?