Choices

Mirror Lake OSU Campus 12/09/09  7:15 am

Choices are in front of us every day, regardless of who we are, what we do or where we go.  Everything we do is a choice.  Even those things that happen to us contain an element of choice in what we do with that interaction. The photo above was taken the morning of December 9th, the day I took my first final exam in over 38 years.  Looking at the beauty, simplicity and utter serenity this shot provides may seem unconnected with choice.  But because I chose to put aside a life of leisurely retirement and return to school, I've been exposed to such vistas.  It sometimes seems that the harder we strive for ease and comfort the tougher life is, and the more we give in to a restless pursuit of more understanding the broader our choices are.  Thirty-eight years ago I failed to choose that pursuit.  The result was a series of life-altering events that took me places, and taught me things I never imagined. 

Now I'm back, chasing my education.  It is a choice, more than ever before.  And the harshest of all truths is this: By NOT choosing, we're sometimes making the most profound choice of all.