Life is full of choices, and by golly, we make them. It is estimated — by those who estimate — that the average adult makes about 35,000 decisions each day. They classify these as “remotely conscious decisions.”
Should I have a bowl of ice cream or a salad? Choosing the ice cream, I would say, is considered “remotely conscious.”
Anyway, as you know, each decision carries certain consequences, which could be both good and bad. Everything in our lives is chosen either consciously or unconsciously. And those consequences, those results, build. One on the other. All of the choices we made yesterday, last week, last year, or even seven and a half years ago, are responsible for where we are today, right now. In what we do, what we have, all of it.
To be sure, there are random events in life. Unpredictable, uncontrollable, and random. But when they come to us, we don’t have to be defined by them. It is all about how we respond to these events. Those choices. Those decisions.
But here is something to consider. Our choices not only affect us, they sometimes — often times — have an impact on others. I kid you not. I think that is why I like looking back at history so much. We can get a glimpse of “what happened” behind the scenes. We can learn about why our world, our place, is what it is today.
Take today’s date, December 1. The first day of the last month, every year. On this date, back in 1913, the Ford Motor Company initiated the world’s first moving assembly line. This was for the production of the Model T. Yes, Henry Ford, a real thinker, put this idea into motion. No pun intended. And from that day forward, it forever changed our world. I can’t imagine how many assembly lines exist in the world today. But. Over a century after Ford’s design, the modern assembly line is still the main vein of the global manufacturing industry.
It seems that history often has two faces. Henry Ford wasn’t just an incredibly successful entrepreneur and industrialist. He was a malicious racist and antisemite. He even bought a newspaper that mainly focused on blaming the Jews for the numerous evils they supposedly committed around the globe. And so it goes. Choices.
Which tumbles over to other global happenings. It was also on this date, this December 1, in the year 1955, when Mrs. Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move from her seat. She was sitting on that bus, clearly minding her own business. And she was already in the back of the bus, seated in the designated “area” for blacks. But a white man stepped aboard and wanted her seat. She said no, and they threw her in jail. This, was in Montgomery, Alabama.
There were two decisions made in that moment. One, by the white guy who demanded her seat. And the second by Mrs. Parks, by saying no. Both of these decisions impacted the course of human rights. Her decision was made out of truth and courage. His? Ignorance and malice.
One more item on this date, a choice which impacted many. In 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter more than doubled the United States national park system size. Good on Jimmy.
So yes. Choices are made. Ours and everyone else’s. We are all part of a complex system of being here in this big world of ours. Our decision to eat the ice cream will probably not have any global implications other than supporting the dairy industry. But sometimes, our choices do have long-range effects. Sometimes we are fulfilling a necessary part in the grand process, with a result larger than we can understand. Either way. Those choices. We should try to make the good ones.
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“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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“We don’t get to chose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.”
― Kami Garcia, Beautiful Darkness
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“What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient.”
― Bodie Thoene
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A Model Choice. The ones we meet.
