Of Choice and Chance

Robert Frost posited that, at any given point in our lives, we are presented with a fork in our life's path that, depending on the choice made, will affect the course our life takes. At that point, there are two choices: the path we choose and the divergent path. The impact of the choice may not be immediately known to us, whether it be positive or negative, but later in our life path. Two types of choice paths will appear in front of us along our journey down life's road: major choices and minor choices.

Minor choices can be as simple as deciding what to order in a restaurant or choosing which pant leg to put on first. They can have no deep, lasting impact or effect on the person you will become. That being said, a negative choice made sparingly will not have a huge impact, but a large amount of negative choices can and will adversely affect your life path. The minor choices you make though will generally only place you along a slightly different, though, parallel path. The changes in the new life path will be subtle, but the impact could be larger than expected.

A single minor choice in life may seem important, but it pales in comparison with the impact of a major life choice. A major choice can find someone miles away from their comfort zone or even see a person change their perception of the world around them by through the consequences of their choices. Much like minor choices, there are both positive and negative choices that affect your life path. Unlike minor choices though, a single negative choice can drastically alter your life path in ways you could never expect.

Divergent paths in life occur when there is a road not taken. It is a choice unmade and a life unlived. Divergent paths function almost the same way as "alternate universes." They are places where the world, the surroundings and even you are the same, but there is something greatly different about the path, all centered around a choice made differently. Divergent paths can also exist when there is a chance that Death was eluded. In these divergent paths, the path comes to a close, though life has continued on.

If ever you have wondered what it would be like to be different, just make the choice in life that your current self would not make, then see who you become. Which path will you take?

An Unfinished Life: A Comment on Choice and Inevitability

As each new day dawns and gives us another chance at life, we tend to forget the subtle things in life. The things that fall by the wayside tend to be the things that we cherish most in life. As I’ve grown, my priorities have changed and I’ve come to a point in my life where, through it seems far off, my mortality is becoming flesh to me. Though I’ve made this realization, my thoughts do not dwell in Death’s realm. They sit rather at the Table of Choice.

I have long believed that a life fully lived is a life full of choices made, choices declined and choices we never had a chance to choose. As we travel through life, there is but one constant: change. Change is a by-product of the choices we make in our daily lives. At any given point in a person’s daily life, they are faced with a myriad of choices. Some of those choices will open doors to more choices, while some will close the door on choices yet to be made. Emerson once said, “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” He perfectly illustrates how choice affects the outcome of not only our day-to-day decisions, but also the choices that affect our lives. Choice acts much like the switches on railroad tracks, with one turn of the switch rails affecting the path of the train.

No matter the outcome of the choices we make there are always the inevitabilities that come with life. The events in our life that would come to pass, much like death, no matter the amount of input we put in through our life choices. Hebrews 9:27 says that man is appointed once to die, thereby ensuring that we know Death is the ultimate inevitability.