Choice and Life

by Tom Salatto

I was just ruminating – everything in my life came about because of my own choices. EVERYTHING! From the chair in the house I chose, to the climate in the state I chose to live in, to the book lying beside my bed. I even chose to marry the girl I met at the odd college I chose when I was 18.

My wife somehow thinks it’s fate – why else would a New Haven boy go all the way out to Cincinnati to study Philosophy and Writing, and by chance be struck by one of thousands of girls at Xavier University, struck enough to spend over 40 years with her and father two beautiful, smart kids?

Now, cool modern John Cusack/Hugh Grant films call it serendipity; Wisdom Teachers call it Fate and Kismet. I call it Life Experience based on choice. If we are free at all, and if freedom matters, then we are at least free to choose. I created a picture years ago; I was going to be a writer when I grew up. Well, I’m not world famous (yet), but I write, and you read (or at least line your garden or the trash cans with my words). I’m sure that if I chose to focus on writing I could advance it a bit.

But I chose to live in Connecticut, so I need lots of money (which seems scarce now, since someone else chose our current economy by choosing our current government). But hey, I’m a free man – I could sell everything tomorrow and live in a cabin in Maine – provide my own heat and shelter and food. I could write and spend next to nothing for the rest of my life! That’s freedom.

The point is that we all create our own lives. Sure, there are obstacles, unforeseen tragedies, but those just give us more options. You might think you’ve run out of options, but you never do. It’s just that one option is to be poor for a while. But then you can create a way to build yourself back up.

Choosing is all about Hope – hope that you can create a life you can experience to the full (notice I didn’t say “create a life that’s easy”). I think we fall into despair when Hope is hidden, or when our choices will lead to dramatic changes (like selling the house). But you know that in short time you can choose to become a success again. Your greatest gift is your freedom to create a life for yourself, and to start over and over, if you need to.

A Creator brings something into being that doesn’t exist. I was staring at the Spire on the Old Stone Church today. It seems like someone is going to scrape and paint it. Honestly I have no idea how anyone can get ladders that high without scaffolding. Then my mind kicked in and began devising ways I could make it work. Of course, not being an engineer, my solutions would probably end as well as the Hindenburg (floating something ABOVE the tower was one of my solutions!), but you see that someone would create a new system out of necessity.

We Creators do the same with our lives every day. Can’t pay all the bills this month? You can find a way to solve that problem. Car broke down? You’ll find a way. Son suddenly getting married at 21? Life changes, and somehow all this has been put into motion by you – YOU live here now, and have this and that, and do what you do, because you chose to have all this at this time. Problems are just unforeseen by-products of your more recent choices.

Knowing this, I see nothing but Hope and Good Decisions for us All! We are all Creators of Life!