Choices

Last night, I watched an episode of Phineas and Ferb, in which one of the characters is having difficulty making choices because he is unable to see the results of his decisions before he decides. Boy geniuses Phineas and Ferb create a device that allows their friend to split himself when making a decision, so that he can see the ramifications before really making the choice. Cumbersome, perhaps, and beyond reality for most of us, but there are days when I really wish I had a machine like that. Some decisions in our lives are clear, and some, not important enough to be worthy of much energy. The ones that fall in between, that have no clear-cut right or wrong, but that feel significant enough to stress us, are the kickers. And for those, sometimes I think I would gladly step into a gizmo (even if it were like some of the amusement park rides I can't stand) if it would allow me to split myself to get a ramifications preview.
 
Every single day, we probably make hundreds of decisions, small ones and large ones. We make many of them without even realizing it. We choose the local bus because it comes first, or the red apple because it's at the top of the fruit drawer. We put on a warm sweater for the day because we are cold in the morning. We take a certain train because we are used to it, even if it is not necessarily the best way to every destination. By and large, we are pretty good decision makers. And yet, just when we think we have mastered it, there come decisions just crying for that me-splitting machine.
 
But in our non-animated world, there is no machine like that. Sometimes we just have to take a leap--make a choice without really knowing what the result will be (or knowing what the result of the thing not chosen would have been). We can do all the research and all the speculation we like, but ultimately, we then have to trust that our choice will end well.
 
Perhaps this is what makes life that much more interesting. We don't always know how a story will end, so there's always something to surprise us. Sometimes what feel like the worst decisions in the moment yield the best outcomes in the end.
 
So, let us embrace our choices--and our ability to choose--whether we can "split ourselves" to anticipate their outcomes or not. We may not know what will happen, but, chances are, will have choices about how to handle what does.