Choices and chasms

There are 500 things in my mind the moment I wrote this. Actually, I don’t count. Things mount up and ideas branch up from one stem of thought to another, so branding figures on a state of mind is futile. Putting 500, I figured, is more suitable. It gives you the impression that you’re not looking at life as a cluttered calendar while it leaves you an assurance that you’re completely in touch with your surroundings.

I read in a medical journal that we make at least 2,500 decisions every day. Some of these stem from mundane issues that take split seconds to digest like where to sit in a jeepney or how strong you wish to close a door. The rest are crucial and life-altering decisions that need even weeks of scheming or analysis. I would love to think that the split-second-choices make up 2,000 of the 2,500 daily choices we make. I set the 500 aside for my mind to explore, although I myself believe that most of these slip my mind.

It was the author J. K. Rowling who wrote, “It is our choices, far more than our abilities that show us who we really are.” This is not an attempt to defend mediocrity, rather, this highlights our power to use these certain ‘abilities’ to change our lives and others, lay a happy and satisfying future, or even heal the world.

If you look at it, the world is like a web where each one of us is entitled to another. One small decision could set off a portent chain of events that could change other people’s lives in ways we never imagined – or intended.

Did the mother, who locked her children at home from the outside to make sure that they don’t stray while she goes to the market, considered that this gesture of security and love will result in the cruel end of her children perishing over an accidental fire?

Have the Filipinos accepted the fact that more than twice, they chose to vote for household names to seat in the government and eventually, they themselves end up complaining and attempting to topple these said politicians? Or have you wondered about the unborn child whose parents decided to let go, that he could be the next president of the country, because they’re afraid of the consequence of their own mistakes and they want to finish college to earn good careers?

Choices are infinite, and even the smallest scenarios we let slip through our fingers could define our lives and our future. If this medical report of 2,500 decisions is accurate and therefore effective, it tells us how much the world changes in one revolution. Figure out the world population times 2,500 decisions and that huge number tells you how “change” that we all wanted could easily transpire once we all work out together for good.

It is your choice then to choose well and wisely. It is disturbing that all decisions we make could shake the rest of the world but it is a reminder that you do have the power to bring this chaotic state of the world to an end. You may be one, but you have at least 2,500 chances everyday to make everyone better – at least – according to science.

Someone who chose to fight for the country till death said, “The Filipino is worth dying for.” With our own sets of 2,500 choices daily, how will you prove him right?