Choice

The famous Robert Frost poem:

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;        5

Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,        10

And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.        15

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Many have quoted from it. But usually only the beginning and the end to show they made the right choice. The picture shows a field and not a wood. I bet, most will just think about choosing between the left or the right road.

What about the middle, or float above the field in a balloon... or map the whole field... or ...?

I think we look at life, at family, work, politics, countries that seem to give us choices. Often they are no choices at all. For the limits imposed are made by humans. And being each of us human, everyone can try to rewrite the rules.

In established powerful institutions, on which some have found security and wealth, the proposition to change the limits or rewrite the rules become perceived personal threats. So they write laws that requires us to walk on the paths laid out only.

That may be useful in a factory where the infra-structure is expensive. Most of the progress of the last Century follows the factory model of organisation. Mass producing students, workers, civil-servants, professionals, artists... Making money is about reaching the masses. Social contracts, laws and constitutions may be biased to mass management.

Institutional structure is moving onto the more ethereal realm of digital signals broadcast, manipulated and translated into communication shown on screens big and small. The limits depend on computer programs which are no longer capital intensive. It just takes effort to redefine a space or a relationship.

The rules can be changed much more quickly than before. This will free creative minds to explore the roads less traveled and make the difference. The move is away from mass management to individualized care and responsibility. The age of cog-like human life is coming to an end. We should take the risk of training our children to think, to live, to thrive, and not just follow well trodden paths that lead to the same places, just because it's "safe".