Beyond Definitions... Choice and Decision

[Tom Taylore]

I was recently thinking about living beyond definitions... and more specifically living beyond the definitions of our language.

You know, it's so EASY to put things in a box and label them...

And while I'm talking about being open-minded, you don't necessarily need to be open-minded to get this concept.

I wanted to discuss something today, based on the definitions but more importantly how we live our lives with it.

It's the idea of Choosing or Deciding....

I'd like to preface this by saying that this isn't about you... it's not about me... it's about ALL of us. I am not judging the way you think and I certainly am not saying that either of these are "wrong"... this is just my take on the way these words are used and what they subconciously mean to us. In fact, I want to say that this might not even fit into the way you view the world... and if not, that's okay too...

Okay, enough of my soapbox... Let's get on with it.

When you look at the difference between Choosing and Deciding, you see vastly different things in the definitions of these two words... yet, somehow or another, society has lumped them together. In fact, society at large has lumped these together to much that in our language they almost mean the same thing...

But in reality, they don't... Let's take a look...

The root of "decide" is "-cide", like suicide or genocide... this means "to kill off something".

So, when you decide that you want corn over snow peas, you've basically "killed off" snow peas!

This means that you aren't happy with either of the options and have made the **decision** that one isn't for you.

Okay, maybe not the best example, but you get the idea.

Let's look at politics... If you were to look at both candidates who are in the running for President are you completely in alignment with one of them for ALL your views??

How about ones that are the "hot points", like the "war in Iraq" or "abortion".

Chances are, you don't AGREE with them on ALL of their views. In this case, you'd be deciding... you go with the candidate that's the "lesser of two evils"...

When you are deciding something, you are killing off something in order to get something else.

Now, let's look at the flip-side... what about CHOICE?

When you are choosing something, you are choosing it.

Not only is it the best option in your opinion, it's what you WANT!

You might choose it based on your descisions from the past, how you feel now or how you might feel in the future, it doesn't matter... you are choosing something because you want to choose it.

And regardless of the factors that led to that decision, you have chosen... And you're happy with your choice.

This is just food for thought... and while on the surface I might be splitting hairs here, there's alot of truth in what I'm talking about...

So, let's keep making those amazing CHOICES as we're in this together, learning lessons along the way!

Talk to you soon,

[Drew and Tigerlily]

Thanks Tom. That was just what I needed to read tonight! My toddler and I have been struggling with choices all day. This gave me a bit of clarity for tomorrow.

[Tom Taylore]

Thanks Kimberly! :)