Choices

Our dogs look to us. They watch us.

They are almost always, even sleeping (one eye open) watching us. Looking for cues.

Our dogs, cats if you have cats, any pet (even fish in a tank), they’re watching. 

We are their Leaders. 

They depend upon us to survive, to thrive. The quality of our leadership, it is everything. If we do it right, then they can live good lives and hopefully, feel some joy, hopefully - lots of joy.

Unlike our pets, or other animals that live outside of our homes, out there - somewhere in the wild, 

coyotes up on the mountain, deer in the woods, lions and tigers and bears…  

US? 

We were born with a huge privilege (or maybe, sometimes, oftentimes it is a burden). 

We were born with the gift (or the curse) of reasoned agency. What does that mean - reasoned agency? 

It means - choice, we make choices. This or that. We must decide.

Contrast, us versus the other animals; we are not Called and we were not Born - to act only - on reflex and instinct. 

We were put here for some reason. (We’ve got shit to do.)

We have decisions to make. Every damn day, one after another - decisions - think fast rookie…  

(Maybe in my next life I can be my dog. You lucky dog…)

But, me, you, all of us - here, now, We Decide.

When we fail to make choices, when we can’t or choose not to decide; well then, no choice, that IS a choice too. 

Decisions, decisions… we can not get away. There is no escape.

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Choices…

Everyday, we make a whole bunch of SMALL (tiny) choices. 

Should I get up now or stay in bed, sleep a little longer? What will I eat for breakfast today? Or will I skip breakfast today? Skip breakfast everyday? 

What should I wear today? The same thing as yesterday, or something different, something new? On and on… little micro, tiny, small choices.

Maybe weekly, maybe monthly, certainly - every year, we make MEDIUM sized choices.

We might change, add or subtract TV packages and programming, mix our information and entertainment streams up. In our house, football and basketball season calls for a live TV package. We want to watch our favorite teams compete in real time. Other times of the year we drop the live programming and jump between canned content - Netflix one month, Hulu the next, HBO the next. Hippity, hippity, hop.

A new piece of furniture. A trip to visit friends or relatives, or a vacation getaway. A new club to join. A new hobby to try out. A new responsibility or task or a tactic to try to optimize our personal performance at work, or play, or sport.

And then maybe every year, at least once or twice every decade (every 10 years) - we make BIG choices. Huge decisions…

Growing up, sooner or later - oh dear, sex. Home runs are big deals, aren’t they? (They should be.) Big decisions. Mess that one up and - oh boy - consequences.

And towards the end of grade school (high school), then what? College? Technical training? Or straight to work? Or, Mom and Dad’s basement maybe? (Big choices. Important. Difficult. Big choices, decisions…)

A Mate? A dog or a cat to keep us company. Pets matter, a big choice. How about having children? 

These are all commitments. Ideally, if we get them right, they last a lifetime. Lifelong commitments. Huge choices that we make, or no choice. Live alone? Sometimes, for some of us, alone IS a good choice. (Context, content, timeline…)

And then, you knew where I was going didn’t you? 

One step ahead, you guessed it, didn’t you? Or did you? 

We were all just there… BIG choice.

Every 4 years, another big choice to make. A choice to make that affects not just us, but our family, our friends, our neighbors, our country and yes - the world. 

In my country, every 4 years we vote to elect a President of our (we were lucky to be born here) big, large economy, incredible military, lots of power… 

Every 4 years we elect a United States President, a VIP Player, it wasn’t always this way, but it is now - United States Presidents are World Leaders, big time players in a balance of POWER. 

Every 4 years, in my country, we are called upon to vote, to pick a leader.

This is most certainly a BIG, huge, a very important choice, a VIC. (VIC, oh, I like that.)

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In 2024, here and now, USA, USA - there are 245 million eligible voters and the way our system works (or doesn’t) - almost always - we are given two (and only two) viable choices - candidates - leaders to choose from. Two choices… that’s all folks.

And, choo, choo, choose - we do, we did.

72.5 million Americans - cast their vote - for the male candidate (29%)

68 million Americans - cast their vote - for the female candidate (28%)

(We had one of each flavor to choose from - this time, this year. An innie and an outie. IMO, the way it should be.)

And finally, 104.5 million Americans - did not cast a vote. They made the No Choice - choice. Remember, there are no passes for us, we humans. No choice is a A choice.

 The No choice - choice received 104.5 million votes (43%)

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The male candidate, a man who served a 4 year term as President of the United States, 4 years back, 

he is back… winner, winner (it wasn’t rigged - this time)

the male candidate, he won a second term, another 4 years. 

(Everyone knows this man. The world knows who this man is. There’s no saying to self, any of us eligible voters, whether we showed up or not, no saying - “I did not know who the winner was. We all know him. No one can say, “I did not know - what to expect”.)

72.5 + 104.5 = 177 million Americans, made the choice, or the no-choice, choice that resulted in a winner, our next United State President, we know him, our next and again, favorite rerun, the USA’s greatest hits - World Leader. 

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Your choice (which includes no choice), my choice… our choices, they are our responsibilities. Life resume. ALL of them.

We can’t get away.

Own them.

Own them. The little ones (they add up over time), the medium sized ones (impact our lives in meaningful ways), the big ones. 

Big choices change our lives forever. 

And sometimes our big choices, yup - little ol me, little ol you; 

we make choices, and some of them, they can and they do - change - the world.

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All of your choices, big, medium, small - look at them, reflect, think about - your choices.

Turn off your screens, silence your talking heads and think about your choices.

They all affect your life (and some of them will affect mine). 

Hopefully we make, have made, more good choices than not. 

But always, some choices turn out to be just OK. And then, all of us, sometimes we make some poor decisions, bad decisions, for whatever (for many) reason(s). 

Reflex, like our pets, over reason? Is that where poor human choices come from?

We all make them. We’ve all been there. 

And still, choices - the good ones, the bad ones; they’re yours, they’re mine. All of us, they’re ours.

Own them. Every single one.

But the only way forward, and not back, is to be honest with ourselves. Look at our choices. Look at ourselves, the person in the mirror… Oh there you are. It’s you - again?

Always, every morning, everyday, all the days that we got left… aim higher, try for (even just a little) better. 

Learn. Keep learning. 

Choices

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Photo: bad photos - my specialty

Good Lord, that’s me.

1990, my first “selfie”, a photo taken with a big clunky, 35mm camera. 

Set timer and run to a spot.

Wow… look at that guy. A deer in headlights, I was wearing an old shirt that I loved. That shirt once belonged to my Dad. Loved that shirt.

I am in my bedroom, in a house that the bank forever owned, upside down (no equity, ever) in Connecticut. Me and two Partners, it was a bank hostage situation, but a fun one. We had some (BIG) fun there.

Turns out, although we could not have known, there was no way for us to have known, our timing was bad. Purchasing that house, in that place, at that time, it turned out to be a pretty BIG, bad decision. 

At the end of the day, that house, when we all wanted to exit, we lost $$$. We went to the closing, writing checks from savings, to get out, to be free and clear and move forward to our next things - to better days.

Kind of perfect, for this moment, the way we (C&S), the way we feel now. Deer in headlights.

Choices.