The phrase “freedom of choice” is a promise without a backbone, essentially an empty philosophical phrase because the real determiner of action is not choice, but consequence in any situation. What steers our course in life is not so much whether we have choices but our acceptance or declining of the consequences of those choices. I have blathered several times here about my desire to work while traveling. The choice to do so has always been there. What’s kept me from shucking it all and heading off are the consequences of that choice. For instance, my older son lives with me and will continue doing so as he begins college this fall. And my younger, 14-year-old son lives just a few miles away with his mother. And then there’s my current job and its benefits that require me to live here. The consequences of what would happen to those three important things in my life, and not the choice, is what keeps me from vagabonding or even becoming a vagabum.

To look at this another way, consider that “choice” is a box on our flow-charted lives, whereas “consequences” are all the boxes and arrows and lines and decision points that originate from that box labeled “choice.” The challenge lies not in examining the choice box, but forecasting how everything flowing out from that box in different scenarios will look, and either accepting those scenarios or leaving the “choice” box alone, vowing to revisit it sometime later.

Some of you will remember the old TV show, “Truth or Consequences” where contestants answered silly questions correctly or suffered the “consequence” of a wrong answer by performing some funny or embarrassing stunt. Unfortunately in real life accepting a bad consequence emanating from a given choice is far from funny. I mentioned in a post a few days ago the quote from Danny DeVito’s movie character, “The choices we make dictate the lives we lead.” How I really see that phrase now is “The consequences we willingly accept determine the path we take.” Choice is but the siren, luring seafarers to the dangerous rocks, while seeing and either accepting or declining the consequences of that choice is what will sink or float the boat.

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What that statement says to me is that we are ultimately responsible for where our lives take us. We can’t blame anyone else nor whine about the results because life isn’t “fair.” We exercise free will when we decide to take this job, or marry that person, or buy this house. These paths are unpredictable where they’ll go, but in hindsight we can easily create a flow chart of how we arrived at a certain place. In retrospect, this chart could a useful tool to assess our lives and perhaps strengthen our will in choices of the future.

The star in this picture of ornamental ironwork is the lone star, a symbol of the great state of Texas. I moved to Texas over 30 years ago, a long time to spend in one place while being fairly vocal about living elsewhere. Why am I still here? Have I let the choices of others dictate the life I’ve lead? The answer is obviously no. I’m the one who’s made the conscious choice to stay here all these years, and I’m responsible for all those decisions. Certainly during the many times I’ve made a change to move elsewhere within the state I could have said no, and made a conscious effort to go elsewhere. As creatures of free will we always have a choice. That is an absolute, even though at the time the harder choice may appear disastrous, it still is an option.

I continue to ponder the choices I could make that might finally give me the choice on living I talk about, but I’m realizing more than ever that it’s not one or two decisions that will conspire to make this happen. It will be a series of choices that could eventually lead to my goal of being geographically independent, thus able to have full choice on living elsewhere. And I’m comfortable that it will happen when I’m finally ready, and not before.

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