The picture is a plan of the labyrinth from Chartres (not from my t-shirt). Actually, my shirt version is a little simpler, but has the same principles. The labyrinth is, I think, an important picture of a search for truth.
If we imagine that the truth that we are searching for is in the centre, as we trace through, we very quickly arrive very close to the centre. It strikes me that some people get this close, and assume that they have the truth they are searching for - a short and easy trip, and it is there. And yet the truth is actually a long way from there, a whole lot more traveling and searching until you actually get to the centre.
The next thing is that the trip takes you back very close to where you started. The journey to truth will often bring you back to almost your starting point, but not quite. It would be a mistake to assume that just because you are nearly back at the start, you have made no progress, because shortly after this, you do arrive in the centre.
But then what do you do? When you have traveled and searched and found the truth that you were after? Well the only thing to then do is to turn around and go back. In the end, you do return to where you started, you do find yourself back precisely where you were before you went searching.
The difference is that now you have traced the labyrinth. That has changed you.
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