The Power of Choice

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” – William Shakespeare

He was relating this to the different parts we all have to play in our lifetimes. He was referring to the stages of development from teething infant to doddering and toothless. He was saying that if we live long enough we must conform to a predestined sequence of physical changes and as a result also to the environmental differences and changes in our world and in the universe.

But from a different perspective; from a more spiritual position, we can surmise that we are all acting out a script that has been written for us. (The most recent movie dealing with this concept was “The Adjustment Bureau”). This is not a new theme. It has been explored in many different ways in many cultures and religions.

What does it all mean? I suppose we can take the position that we really don’t have freedom of choice if everything has been predetermined. And yet we make decisions all the time that we can define as choices we’ve made because decisions are based on evaluating options and choosing one option over others. So, do we have freedom of choice, or not?

Let’s play a game of words. There’s FREEDOM OF CHOICE and then there’s FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. Is there a difference between these two?

It’s the word FREEDOM that disqualifies the equation, in my opinion.

If we do not have the FREEDOM of choice, it’s because the outcome has been predetermined based on prescient knowledge of what you will be choosing to do, and in the hopes that it fits in with the PLAN that has been approved by the power(s) that be. But the FREEDOM to choose is not a FREEDOM at all. It’s really an ABILITY to choose. We all have that.

When we exercise the ability to choose, we consider it our right, a freedom we have, to make the universe conform to what we want, what we have opted for. And perhaps that’s exactly what happens. Perhaps we can change the script after all by the decisions we make through our wills. Is this getting too heavy?

Then let’s lighten it up a notch. If we in fact have no freedom of choice and the script has been written for us, what is our only remaining option?

If a script is written for an actor and 100 hopefuls read for the part, only one will get the part. Reason… one will act it out better than the others. So I guess what I’m saying is that if the script is written for me and I have no option but to act it out, shouldn’t I try to act it out as best I can, and maybe I will earn an academy award one day.