What are we even doing?

submitted by magnora7 from (self.CriticalThoughts)

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[–]i_cansmellthat 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

And I mean that, you are a free to choose as you wish, and that's one of the craziest things about this whole existence. We have all these choices we didn't even realize we had, because we never took the time to stop playing the mini-games we were fixated on, and just step back and re-evaluate things as a whole.

A couple of weeks ago, my nephew was complaining about his friend to me. He is 11, and while with a group of friends he had shot a video of one of them acting loud and crazy, like most 11 year old boys act. He had posted the vid on his youtube channel with his friends permission, but the next day his friend was adamant he take it down. His complaint to me was, "He is making me take it down." My reaction was close to anger at him, I told him no one can make you do anything. Leave it up, take it down, don't wear pants today, whatever. You always have a choice, some choices have consequences. Take it down because you choose to, not because you are forced to. I feel like what you said there echoed our conversation (in a way) in that many people feel they have to do something this way or that, when in fact they have way more control than they think.

Great write up, thought about it quite a bit since first reading it.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That's a great thing to teach your 11-year old. I honestly did not figure that out until I was in my 20s. I always did everything I was told, and it got me a lot of heartache without much to show for it.

Your distinction of doing an action because you choose to, based on the consequences, rather than because someone told you to, is a subtle distinction that's very important, and a lesson they certainly don't teach in school or at church. And my parents never taught it to me either.

Anyway, glad you found the article to be thought-provoking, and I think that's a great lesson that you taught your son.

[–]i_cansmellthat 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yea I didn't figure that out early in life either, and I still catch reverting back to "I don't have a choice" mode, though not often. It's freeing really, no excuses for why you land where you find yourself (in most cases).