Did We Have the Choice
On the rabbit hole of cause and effect — and the unsettling question of whether we ever really chose any of it.
Every now and then a thought arrives that won’t let you finish whatever else you were doing. This was one of those.
I feel like I’m going down a rabbit hole
Faster and faster with every passing day
Carving a path to my fate
What is supposed to be, what will be
There are moments in time
That define the course in which we take
We do our best, to choose the best
I’m just not sure we’ve ever had the choice
The question of free will has kept philosophers busy for thousands of years and they still haven’t agreed. The poem isn’t trying to resolve it — it’s just sitting with the unsettling part: that the feeling of choosing might not match the reality of how we got here.
I do my best to choose the best. I just leave room for the possibility that the best was already in motion.
— JTC