Good Choice

History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided.

Konrad Adenauer
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Life is just a catalogue of results. We live mainly with the consequences of the choices we made or the choices that were made for us one way or another. When we start out we have no choices of our own, they are made for us. We didn't choose to be born. We're given a name before we are consulted about it. We didn't choose our parents or where we live. The best we can do is to make demands by means of loud noises. By the time we reach the age when someone finally asks us what we want we are so unused to making choices that we probably don't know. Then we may make a choice we regret.

The choosing process usually doesn't take long but the results of our choices can last a while, maybe even the rest of our lives. Some people claim our destiny is written in the stars or our DNA. I claim it is more likely written in our choices. In so many of the simple, so called trivial moments of our lives we are likely to make choices that have far reaching results. You make a simple choice to go one way and not the other and your entire future has changed even though you don't know it yet.

Why is the world in such a mess? Because over the many years of our human existence choices were made, some good, some not so good and some dreadful. So many of the rocky, thorn bush lined paths we've trod as citizens of the earth could have been avoided if only someone had made a better choice way back.

Along with the bundle of results we have to live with as a result of our decisions is the nasty crop of regrets. A wiser person may say "Don't do that. You'll regret it." Do we listen and heed? Maybe. If we're smart we do. But maybe not and then we have our own personal regret to live with. Regrets are negative crops, the weeds that grow up along side the wheat. They should be rooted up and discarded. What's the point of regretting? It's a Herculean waste of time and effort. "The past is prologue" Shakespeare wrote. The future is what is important, and since you've learned now to make better choices (haven't you?) you can look forward to better results.

Some wise person once said "You always get what you want. So be very careful about what you want."

DB - The Vagabond
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Never give up.
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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