Options Available
A cyber friend posted this on her blog:
What does it mean to choose, to have a choice? It implies that there are alternatives and it's up to an individual to select one. It may mean to embrace or espouse one of the options. Choice suggests intention— or a deliberate action.
Implied in this is purposeful activity. Suppose that the choices available are unacceptable—then one is released from any obligation to choose. But no choice is also a choice and may have its own consequences.
Pastor Bonhoeffer, during World War II, could stay in the United States and ignore his conscience or return to Germany and most certainly face an enraged Nazi response to his words. Despite the certainty of dire consequences if he spoke out against the fascist regime, he chose to return to Germany.
What about the choices we don't make, but are fostered upon us by others. A child may be scarred by the choices an adult makes. A family may descend into poverty by the actions of the adults—or the circumstances at the time.
Yet, no matter what the circumstances we all face choices.
We can choose to inhabit a place where we don't forgive and then massage the hurt until its palpable. We can march in place—never moving a foot forward, simply hovering over the same words and actions.
To hang in the air vibrating between two poles,
to linger suspended between the aerialist and the ground,
to sit on a perch and watch is not an option
The choice is always ours.
—Aldous Huxley
What does it mean to choose, to have a choice? It implies that there are alternatives and it's up to an individual to select one. It may mean to embrace or espouse one of the options. Choice suggests intention— or a deliberate action.
Implied in this is purposeful activity. Suppose that the choices available are unacceptable—then one is released from any obligation to choose. But no choice is also a choice and may have its own consequences.
Pastor Bonhoeffer, during World War II, could stay in the United States and ignore his conscience or return to Germany and most certainly face an enraged Nazi response to his words. Despite the certainty of dire consequences if he spoke out against the fascist regime, he chose to return to Germany.
What about the choices we don't make, but are fostered upon us by others. A child may be scarred by the choices an adult makes. A family may descend into poverty by the actions of the adults—or the circumstances at the time.
Yet, no matter what the circumstances we all face choices.
We can choose to inhabit a place where we don't forgive and then massage the hurt until its palpable. We can march in place—never moving a foot forward, simply hovering over the same words and actions.
To hang in the air vibrating between two poles,
to linger suspended between the aerialist and the ground,
to sit on a perch and watch is not an option
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