Friday, March 12, 2010

Choices...

Received some news about a member of my family. While it was requested that I don't go into detail, it started me thinking. Things we do make differences we might not even expect.

If I hadn't gone to town in May of '88, I wouldn't have been hurt. I also wouldn't (most likely) become an amateur radio operator, and would have never met my husband.

If Husband hadn't been rather annoyingly persistent, I probably wouldn't have married him. And we wouldn't have been together going on 19 years.

If my Dad hadn't been in the Navy, he probably wouldn't have met Mom, been persistent, and married her. (Is persistence a guy thing?)

What would have happened in high school, if I had tried pot, or went ahead and helped with the senior prank where we were going to cherry bomb the toilets?

What if I had went on to become an educator in the public schools?

What if I worked harder on being assertive?

What if I put more time into some things I put off, and less into others? I have cut way back on television, and amazingly, more 'stuff' is getting finished. If I make a point of writing daily, would I have a better chance of getting my book written? (Might help if I get more than an outline going, huh?)

Will volunteering lead me to meet people that could get me a 'real' job? Or a job might be available because of my background? (That's how my Dad was hired, the hiring person had heard of his varied background in electronics.)

I can choose to eat a good breakfast, that I might not like as well as just grabbing a candy bar. I could choose to sit and knit, rather than go exercise. (On occasion, I have made the choice of exercising AND knitting. Bad choice, especially when you lose a dpn in tall grass... But I can walk and knit at the same time, amazingly.)

Tom Petty concert, or a new computer? Seeds, or candy? Volunteer, or stay home? Hat, or sunscreen, or none? Be friendly, or avoid people? None of these could be life altering choices, but at the same time, yes they can.

No one is perfect, but there is something to be said for choices.

Here's hoping that all your choices are good.

8 comments:

AJ-OAKS said...

Great post!! Choices are presented to us each and every day wether we realize it or not. That is how we become the people we are. For myself, a terrible childhood made me the person I am today. A choice I made many, many years ago to not become a victim and a whiner of bad times. Things do happen in our lives for reasons.

Louise said...

Thought provoking topic, Cat. I think that there are many, seemingly inconsequential, choices that we have made in our life that have all contributed to making us what we are today. You reminded me of a Robert Frost poem.

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

1. The Road Not Taken


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Ms. Diva said...

My choices may not be good but they have shaped me! I am hoping that as I get older I do make better, not good, but better choices!! :)

The Merry said...

Exercising while knitting sounds dangerous... aren't those needles kinda pointy?

Cat said...

AJ-Oaks:

Yes, it seems like there was a film titled "What we are is where we were when". I guess I would add, "And what we did." And when we learn not to be victims, that is victory indeed.

Cat

Cat said...

Louise:
I love that poem. I wasn't thinking about that one in particular, but that fits so well! Thanks!

Cat

Cat said...

Ms. Diva:

My dear, "Good" choice is in the eye of the beholder! I wish you the good choices for YOU. And yes, let's say that all choices we've made in our lives probably wouldn't get any of us on the list of "angels" anytime soon. Besides, ya gotta make the occasional bad choice, if for no other reason, than to realize that there are some out there! Heh.

Cat

Cat said...

The Merry:

I use the more blunt pointed ones when I am walking, and yes, I suppose I could do some impaling of my person, but I have knitted for long enough, I generally don't need to look at my work unless I am turning a heel or something not just "plain knitting", so I can move around. But, I wouldn't run or something... Actually, I am quite a bit more likely to SIT on my needles than stab myself walking. Eeep.

Cat