Think About It. Choice. Paper or plastic? Decaf or regular? Good or evil? Black or white or wheat or rye. Like it or not, you have no choice but to make choices. Nature abhors ambivalence. Get out of bed after a “hard night” and go to work knowing you’re facing a “hard day”. It’s not that you must rise or you must go to work. The choice is yours. Get paid or not get paid. It’s gotta be this or that.
Forest Gump quoted his mother as saying “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get, ” is the best! Once asked to name my favorite aunt, I had multiple choices. There were Inez, Lucy, May, Mary and Clara. All either needed or deserved to be my choice. It was easy after a memorable visit to Vincennes, not the French site of the Marquis de Sade’s imprisonment, but the Indiana hometown of Red Skelton. I suspected that I was a favorite nephew when she made cherry chocolates right before my very eyes. Although WWII sugar rationing was in force, I was not limited in consumption of my favorite candy at the home of my favorite, aunt Clara. Any questions?
Not all options are that simple. With a dilemma you may be impaled on the horns of two or more unsatisfactory alternatives. A dichotomy being sort of like a branch in the road, provided a baseball legend the place for profundity, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” By the way, contrary to some misguided opinion, the bear Yogi was named after catcher Yogi Berra. Back to the 15th century when stable owner Thomas Hobson, in an attempt to rotate his horses, offered everyone the chance to choose the equine nearest the door. Some said he had only one horse. Hobson’s choice became the polite name for “Take it or leave it.” Picture above shows a fancy outfit for a stable owner.
In travelling this pot-hole-pitted road of choices we must not ignore that yearly we come to Morton’s fork. Or should I say, the Internal Revenue Service uses it. Credit for this coup goes to 15th century tax collector, Archbishop of Canterbury John Morton who reasoned that a person living modestly must be saving money, so could afford to pay taxes. Similar logic provided the same specious conclusion, that those who lived extravagantly must be rich and should certainly pay. Sound familiar? Today’s IRS, believe it or no, does collect taxes from the high rollers. If you live modestly and save too much, they may only have to wait until you die to collect.
All day, every day, we must decide when and what we eat, wear, say and do. Writers must make choices word by word. A favorite of daughter Laura Lee, poet/novelist Madeleine L’Engle made hers. “You have to write a book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then write it for children.” That settles that. She also offered, “It is the ability to choose which makes us human.” Permit me to offer that choosing not to choose leaves for others the need or opportunity to do it. And may I say, that not choosing is a really bad Choice. Think About It.