{"id":702,"date":"2010-06-28T14:35:32","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T21:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/?p=702"},"modified":"2010-06-28T20:33:21","modified_gmt":"2010-06-29T03:33:21","slug":"the-decisions-we-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/06\/the-decisions-we-make\/","title":{"rendered":"The Decisions We Make"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Choices\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In my senior year in college I was finishing up all of my\u00a0general\u00a0education classes, classes that would have normally been taken in the first couple of years. \u00a0I was more interested in math and science so I delayed my general ed classes. \u00a0One of the more interesting and challenging classes I attended was Philosophy 101. \u00a0It was in this class that we\u00a0were\u00a0introduced to deductive logic,\u00a0reasoning\u00a0and how to argue and prove a line of thinking.<\/p>\n

We had a term paper due at the end of the semester, one of our choosing, with professor approval of course (so much for choice). \u00a0I was clueless as to what I would write about and try to prove. \u00a0Then one day in class the professor spoke on the topic of free will. \u00a0She mentioned that past philosophers argued and proved that humans have free will. \u00a0This rubbed me the wrong way, and of course I did not agree. \u00a0I approached her after class and debated with her that as humans we do not have free will and that I would like to tackle this topic as the subject of my term paper. \u00a0At first she was very reluctant to allow me \u00a0to work on this topic, insisting that there was no way I could disprove free will. \u00a0After a little cajoling she allowed me to write on that topic, but gave me a caveat that I would not \u00a0be successful. \u00a0Well, throwing the gauntlet down at my feet only kindled my\u00a0fervor\u00a0and I set out on my task.<\/p>\n

If you are interested in reading that short paper, I\u00a0think I\u00a0could find it stashed away in my notes somewhere. \u00a0But the basic premise of my argument was\u00a0that rather\u00a0than free will, which implies the ability to do as one wishes, what we truly have is merely the freedom of choice. \u00a0We can choose whatever we wish freely, from our actions, decisions, preferences and so on. \u00a0However, the outcomes of our choices are not in our control, nor do we have any foreknowledge of what the outcomes of our choices will be. \u00a0Of course this premise is not as attractive as that of a free will, where we have the\u00a0freedom\u00a0to choose, but also, in addition to that, we would know and have control over the outcome of our choices. \u00a0My argument did not find favor with my professor and she had notes in the margins arguing almost every statement I made.<\/p>\n

Then I introduced the concept of a being that would have complete and total free will and described how such an entity would literally have control over everything and that there could only be one such entity for otherwise the universe as we know it would fall into complete chaos as the multiple entities would be battling for superiority – willing this and that in to being over each other. \u00a0I\u00a0named\u00a0this entity, for lack of any better\u00a0term\u00a0God. \u00a0At this point, her comments seemed to dwindle and then vanish from the page. \u00a0My final conclusion was that if we truly had free will there would be nothing to stop us for vying for control and becoming gods ourselves. \u00a0And since this has never happened and probably never will, free will for us mere humans is a fallacy.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to the reason I post this story today. \u00a0Choices. \u00a0Four years ago I photographed that stoic valley oak in the local hills surrounding the San\u00a0Jose, CA area. \u00a0It was nice but it never seemed to call out to me to do anything with it. \u00a0So I decided to just file it away. \u00a0Two weeks ago a client requests an image that can portray informed decision making for a website landing page. \u00a0Well this\u00a0photo\u00a0comes to mind.<\/p>\n

At about the same time, I become ill along with all of my four children. \u00a0A terrible hacking cough plagued us, with a very distinct Whooping gasp for air at the end of the paroxysms. \u00a0What was going on? \u00a0We visit the doctor. \u00a0To our astonishment we have contracted Pertussis – yeah whooping cough! \u00a0But\u00a0wait, I was vaccinated… you mean the vaccine does not confer life long immunity? \u00a0Well it would have been nice to be told that as an adult. \u00a0What! \u00a0You mean its only 70% to 97% effective in children? \u00a0Well so much for vaccines. \u00a0Okay, its not a life threatening illness since we are all above the age of 2 years, but 100 days of coughing is not an attractive proposition, and there is nothing, I mean nothing, to lessen the severity of the cough. \u00a0We just have to let it run its course. \u00a0Do nothing and after 21 days from onset and we are no longer\u00a0contagious. \u00a0Take a course of antibiotics and the contagious\u00a0period\u00a0is reduced to 5 days.<\/p>\n

More\u00a0decisions. \u00a0Well I am on\u00a0quarantine for two more days, my kids another four. \u00a0But we still\u00a0have\u00a0all summer to look forward to\u00a0with glorious hacking on a daily basis, great!<\/p>\n

This whole episode started me down the path of questioning all the\u00a0decisions that I have made in the last 13 years of my life with children trying to find the specific decision that lead us down the path that brought us to the situation we now deal with. \u00a0Was it 12 years ago when we made a conscience decision to hold off on all vaccines for our oldest son who had a condition that would have been exasperated by the chemicals in the vaccines? \u00a0Could the vaccines have stopped this? \u00a0Not for me. \u00a0And possibly not for my oldest son either, as the childhood vaccine wears off after 10 years. \u00a0 \u00a0Was it our decision to enroll our kids this past year in a public charter school rather than continuing to\u00a0home-school? \u00a0My oldest son informs us that many other students in his classroom were coughing around the time he contracted it. \u00a0So that might have been it. \u00a0Yet there is an outbreak now in the U.S. and adults are the main transmitters of this illness.<\/p>\n

I could go on like this forever to no end and to no benefit. \u00a0It is easy to pinpoint where things go wrong if we could trace our decisions far back enough to the original\u00a0decision\u00a0between choice 1 and 2 – like the two main branches of that oak tree. \u00a0But as we continue down our path making turns right and left along the way, sometimes\u00a0cognizant of what we are doing and sometimes in complete heedlessness, we end up finding ourselves in the canopy of all the possible outcomes and most often than not, the leaf we find ourselves standing on touches many other leaves, bringing several decisive paths to the very same concluding circumstance.<\/p>\n

So it leaves me at this conclusion; we are at the mercy of the Most Merciful, the All-Powerful, Free-Willing\u00a0entity\u00a0that we call by\u00a0many names, one of which is God. \u00a0We have been given the freedom to choose what we will and good or bad they are our choices and we have to live with the consequences. \u00a0The amazing thing for me is this: \u00a0We don’t know the outcome of our choices, but God does. \u00a0Further, we do not have the luxury of not making choices, we are compelled to choose, and we have no choice in that. \u00a0So choose, and choose well, for the path that unfolds before you will be of your own choosing.<\/p>\n

Peace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This whole episode started me down the path of questioning all the decisions that I have made in the last 13 years of my life with children trying to find the specific decision that lead us down the path that brought us to the situation we now deal with. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[264,10],"tags":[289,287,288,290,55,142,292,291],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":707,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions\/707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}