I choose…

What to say to myself about myself, others, risks involved, my needs and rights.

I choose
where to be,
how to act,
what to say and do,
who I want to be with,
what to concentrate on or believe in,
when to go along and when to resist,
who I ought to trust or avoid.

And most importantly I choose
what behaviours to emit in reaction to others choosing for themselves.

‘No man is an island’ someone once said. Human psychology is here to show us how many people are shipwrecked in their own minds. Psychologists and therapists tell us it is about choice, and choice is more often than not, limited. Unlimited choice paralyses me. Choice within parameters eg ‘you can have this one or that one, or any one of these but not these.’ gets my goat.

Because then emotions, attachments and identifications happen. Add emotions to the mix, and it’s amazing anything gets done. Is evolution really about mankind getting better and smarter than we were?

‘If there be nothing new, but that which is,
hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
which labouring for invention bear amiss
the second burthen of a former child?’
Q59:1-4.