Growing up, we’re fated to be introduced to eventful periods of giving more attention to the decisions we make, become skeptical about the choices we’re yet to make and rue some of the choices we have made. We begin to see things differently, even if that’s not saying we always see things the right way up. Some take on the high road and push to be more principled, while others embrace the feral. And yet, some others just have the talent to excel at folly. But for whichever one, each new day brings with it a new angle from which we can observe all around us.
Making choices, in its simplest form, is difficult. On one plane, riffling between two options may require no head-scratching, restive moments, and this is almost always because some selections may seem less consequential than another. On the other plane, however, not one of those moments is peculiarly a cinch; each option require selection, and before any selection comes dilemma.
Dilemma is not an unpopular word, and thanks to pop culture, the term have largely been associated with father-choosing-between-daughter-and-wife instances, where there have to be a ‘big’ decision to be made between two unpleasant alternatives. But that’s only another step away from reality.
Having to make a decision is never a prize position anyone would have an eye for, however insignificant or deciding that may prove to be. Don’t we imagine a time when we could just use a single network provider, rather than juggle between MTN, GLO, Airtel and Etisalat, simply because they all offer the same services? Or a time when we could accept friend requests on social media, without fear of trolls or mooncalves, just because people’s brain have begun to be made up of cells and no longer pea pods? Or a time when we wouldn’t have to gripe about getting off the bed at the waking of the sun or decide to catch more sleep for a few more minutes? We all crave simplicity (and no, it’s not laziness–it’s only wishing life was less complicated). This simplicity we all want emphasizes how the burden of making any decision pricks the mind.
As we mature, more significant decisions begin to climb up our scale of activity, and the less significant ones equally start to decline. It’s in this phase the virtue of carefulness is imperative. It’s along this phase we begin to notice the strings; we begin to see things we feel constrains us from our goals; we begin to see many things we could do–and escape from–to achieve our dreams. We create big goals, we see bigger obstacles, and we look for ways to conquer those obstacles. While growing, we were taught about the detriment of obstacles, and taught several ways to overcome them, so we grow up with the mindset that obstacles should be overcame, otherwise they will pull us down. Truth is, some of those constraints, those obstacles, are really there to hold us up. I came upon a John Newton’s poem titled ”The Kite; or Pride Must Have a Fall”. In the poem, the Kite wishes to cut free from its strings.
”Were I but free, I’d take a flight,
And pierce the clouds beyond their sight,
But, ah! Like a poor pris’ner bound,
My strings confines me near the ground.”
The Kite does finally manage to tug itself free, but instead of soaring higher, it crashes into the sea.
When a kite is held by its strings and the wind comes strongly against it, it usually look as though, if freed, it’d soar into and across the sky. But when finally freed, it almost usually gets stuck in an electric pole, a gate’s spikes, or just drop to the ground somewhere faraway. On some occasions, though, they truly soar into the clouds.
But don’t we sometimes feel like this kite, constrained and deterred? Haven’t we felt that if only we could just get away from a place, situation, or system, we could truly maximize our potential, soar higher? This kite analogy calls us to reconsider some of those things we might feel constrains us. Vows. Commitments. Responsibilities. Promises. Challenging environments. These constraints, these ‘obstacles’, may in fact be what holds us up.
This is by no means asking us to become fatalists and accept everything that comes our way, or remain wherever we find ourselves. It’s just, yet again, another choice where it’s prudent to be skeptical about, keeping in mind that not all Josephs who are confined become prime ministers.
We don’t have to remain where we are if we don’t have to be. But then, we’d have to make a choice about what is right and what isn’t. Where we are may truly not be enough, or it could just be where we need to be. Difficulties aren’t always warning flags to quit a task, project, or leave a place. Conversely, these strings could really be what’s preventing us from ”piercing the clouds”. But as we go about deciding what is right or wrong for us, remember this:
Before cutting any string, make sure it’s not one that’s holding you up.
(curled from Artavalanche.com)
