Ruminations

I'd almost forgotten one of the rare good scenes in the 'modern' StarWars trilogy telling the ill-fated story of Anakin Skywalker before he turned into Darth Vader. The scene above, along with the music, manages to capture superbly the fateful moment that leads the hero to his own downfall while at the same time showing how everything that unfolds next hinges on one single decision.

We seem to take decisions everyday, from what time we should get up or what we should have for lunch to what school we should send our kids to or if we should even settle down and have kids at all.
But most decisions are influenced by an array of factors already at play that are likely to push us into one particular choice whether we're aware of those factors or not.

In more ways than one, Life is like a narrowing road winding its way into the distance. The moment we get born is arguably when the person's life choices (or 'realm of possibilities') are at their largest, but as the person grows older and an increasing number of internal and external factors are added on along the way, that road narrows down to a thinner and thinner path with less and less room for options to make any turn at all. And as this Life road becomes thinner over time, leaving the person increasingly stuck walking on a thin thread leaving next to no room for anything except walking on ahead, the variety of choices and the dreams or aspirations the person once had dwindle down to obscurity.

I personally like to keep my realm of possibilities as wide as possible, meaning that to this day my Life's road remains much wider than a lot of people out there. One of the biggest downsides in this is that walking along a wider road leaves you prone to getting stuck wandering blindly in circles without even noticing it. I should know for I seem to have got stuck in those circles several times already. And maybe every time I think I've emerged from one it's only to fall straight back into another one.

But what's worse? Walking down a thinning path with blinkers on, or leaving the path wide enough to take the risk of getting lost?

For what it's worth, I don't think I'm getting it. I'm not getting the point... Again, it's like having something right in front of you and not being able to see it. Like searching for a watch everywhere for days only to realise it was sitting in plain sight on your desk all along.