We all have those moments in life
when we may wish to have a built-in “delete” button…
Anyway,
back to reality and the thread at hand. Where does this come from? you ask… You
didn’t ask? Well, let’s believe you did. No, not that I don’t listen to you,
just that I can’t hear you right now… This old computer makes too much noise.
A few
nights ago, during a class (familiar
grounds?) there was an exercise which consisted of three questions to be
answered in paragraph form, to be discussed. They all dealt with the concept of “options” and
their consequences. One of the questions asked for the student’s opinion about
the meaning of the concept represented by the word “option”. Most identified it
with the idea of “choices”, which is OK. One came very close to my own
interpretation which is that options (choices) can only be made or taken when
there are several viable possibilities available. This “plethora of directions”
allows you to look and try to second-guess life as to where lies the better
road to follow. Need I tell you that sometimes you win and sometimes… well, you
don’t. Rarely do you come up even.
The
second question was “what was the decision which has most impacted your life”?
In a gathering where most are US born participants, the decision identifying
process might have taken a longer time. In the class, all are immigrants and
the answers were pretty much the same: “coming to the US”. Understandable.
The
third question was: “If you could go back in time, which decision would you
make differently”? Now we are talking. And thinking. As you can imagine, all
that came in the previous paragraphs was a prelude to this part.
But
in fact, after a while of discussion, there was no real revelation. Yes, there
may be many decisions made along the way which could come under review, and
justly so. We all have had those moments which we immediately wished we could
have back. And, at times, we are sure that if this could happen, we would make
a totally different -almost Solomonic- decision.
The
real question is: “would we really”?
The
consensus of the group, as well as mine, was that … probably not. Why? you ask…
Let’s face it. Any decision we make is influenced by a few things: The
circumstances of the time; people involved; emotions; knowledge of the subject
meriting a decision; our own reservoir of available experience. Anytime we
think about changing a past decision, most of those elements are different than
what they were then. It becomes easy to second guess. The reality is that if we
were to go back to a specific moment in time, within the same equation elements available then, we would most likely make the same decision.
Besides,
as one of the members of the group stated: “If I changed decisions along the
way, I would not be who I am today”. Give that man 10 points and a lollypop.
That was basically the hidden essence of the question. If anyone of us were
able to go back and change a decision important enough to still be remembered, chances
are that this person would be a very different individual than what he or she
is today. Better?... maybe. Worse? … there is that possibility also.
One
of the basic tenets of most eastern religions is that who you are is “sacred”
because you are who you are meant to be. At any given point in time. We are but
the culmination of all those decisions made along the way, good, bad and
indifferent; along with fortuitous happenings which have nothing to do with our
will and yet, shape our lives in ways we can’t even imagine at the time. A “Delete”
button? Not really necessary.
Enjoy
who you are, because you are important. Just as you are. Gandhi put it best: “Whatever
you do may be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it”.
Be
Well … Be Back!!!
Final Notes:
· Pray
for those who are
fighting an illness which may take them away from their loved ones… Every
request is heard, and counts!!
No comments:
Post a Comment