Life is a series of choices [30 Dec 2008|09:11pm] [ mood | contemplative ] Forget predestination. That just takes responsibility away from us. We are the agents of choice, what we choose to do creates and destroys. Of course there are things out of our control, like the elements and seismic activities ( I once used to track earthquakes worldwide through a geologic site online). We choose to be happy, or we choose to be sad. We choose to lonely or we choose to be un-lonely, (is that a word?) I have made some choices lately and I wouldn't go as far as to say that they are good or bad choices, but there's a gradient--better and best. In a lot of ways, I'm still in the process of choosing. Where to attend graduate school? Should I stay on the west coast? Should do the east thing for a while. Should I sell my car? Should I move back home or to a relative's to save money? Should I continue dating someone I'm not crazy about? Should I take a chance on someone new? Should I forgo the whole romance department until I move on to the next phase of my life? Should I sell my stocks or hold on to them? I suppose my decisions are as imperative to the grand scheme things as Obama's and the house's decisions in the near future, but to me they are. I saw this video on TED.com, http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html (technology education and design, conference that invites amazing speakers to come and share their thoughts on these three subjects). The speaker Barry Schwartz spoke about the paradox of choice. These days we have too many choices as a result, we are unhappy. It's the number of choices alone, but the fact that having too many choices creates regret. Consequently we are not satisfied with the choices we made. That's food for thought. post comment

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