The Choice To Live

"You are the person who has to decide. Whether you'll do it or toss it aside; you are the person who makes up your mind. Whether you'll lead or will linger behind. Whether you'll try for the goal that's afar. Or just be contented to stay where you are."--Edgar A. Guest

So, I haven't posted anything big for two months. I can see how you guys would be a little ticked. It's just that around the time I posted the first Random Thought, I was going through a rough patch, and the post I was working was very angry. It would have been foolish of me to publish such a thing. So I sat, for two months, waiting for a good idea to come to me. This post is horrible, I'll be the first to admit it. I wrote it off the top of my head and so probably it won't sound very clear. Just stay tuned for something better. It took awhile to come up with an idea, but here I am.

Life is made of up choices. Choices make you who you are, they build your life and personality from the ground-up. The choices you make give you the friends you have now; the things you like and don't like; the way you think. When you look back on anything and everything you have done, chances are that 90% of the stuff you have done was the result of a choice.

As I sit here and think about it, life really is just a web of choices, strung together to create--us. Do we eat that entire pizza? Do we ditch one friend for another? Do we sulk alone, quiet lovers and hopeless romantics, or do we go out and try to do with our love? Do we join a new, bold club? Do we go out and meet new people? Do we love people for who they are, or do we try to change them?

The idea of writing about choices came from a rather unlikely (and some of you may argue lame) source. The video game Fable 2 by a company called Lionhead was released not long ago, and I got it for my birthday, but I didn't start to play it until just recently. That game is based on choices as well; you can transform the land you travel, the story, and the people you meet by your actions. Do use the gun, or the sword? Do you plunge a whole section of a city into crime and corruption, or do you save it from those very things? Are you good, or evil? A soldier of the light, or of the dark?

Naturally, I was the goody-two-shoes that choose all of the pure options, and helped out anyone I could. It's just who I am, and it was neat to see it shown in the game itself. My best friend also got the game, and he did everything the opposite of me, basically. When I went online and visited his world, it was totally different. While the world I had helped form was bright and hopeful, his was dark and hateful. While the game would be cool either way, I thought that it was cool way to show people the effect of choices, and that it's not as simple as saying 'yes' or 'no'.

My guess is that alot of people who own the game will choose to be evil because it's the cool thing to do. But is it so cool? Some people might say that they aren't really evil, it's just cool to see you do things that you would never do, and make choices that don't really fit you. But is that true? Are you sure that your choices in a game don't reflect a choice you might make in real life?

Now I'm not talking about video game violence affecting violence in the real world, because I feel that that argument is total BS. I'm talking about the choices that affect your life, in the game and outside of it. You may choose to kill innocent man in the game because it gets your closer to the treasure a little faster, but what if you were presented with a real choice.

What if someone who stole the love of your life from you was laying at your feet, and you had a gun in your hand. Do you shoot him? Do you let it go? What would you do? You may say that you were just evil in a game cause it was cool, but what of your actual thoughts and beliefs? What are your principles? Would controlling a group of people through brutality be so bad for you?

I know I couldn't do it in a game. I just have too many stingy principles that I hold to. I was trying as a renegade in Mass Effect, another game that lets you make choices as to whether you are good and evil, and I just couldn't do it. Do see my character be mean to other people was something I couldn't mentally bare. It's just not who I am. I'm not like that in real life, so I don't do it in a game.

Games like GTA IV are different, though. You don't really get much choice there. But if I could choose to be a 'good' killer, that would be what I would choose. But games like Fable and Mass Effect give you choices to make, and thus you make the ones that, I hope, reflect you.

Okay, let's stop being geeky for a minute. In real life, what choices do you make? Are you good, or evil? A person of the light, or of the dark? Are you going to be a two-faced B word or a motherly figure with plenty of love for all? Are you we going to disregard any respect for our fellow peers, or will we accept other people with arms wide open?

What group of people do you hang out with? Are they good, or evil? Do they tell you they love you and then talk trash behind your back, or do they tell you that they love and mean it?

Here's a big one: Do you go to college, or drop out of high school?

Starting to see what I mean about the web of choices? Choices are everywhere. They make us who we are, what we stand for. I choose to not write a big post for awhile because I wanted the right idea to come along so I didn't give you guys total garbage. I choose to sulk about noting having a girlfriend, because if I told someone about it, it wouldn't really fix anything. I'd just get a pat on the back and a "don't worry".

Another thought before I wrap up: do we ever think about the people that don't get a choice? Did the people in Darfur get to choose whether or not they should fight? What about the child whose parents were murdered? The woman was sexually assaulted? Did they get to choose? Were they pressed for a decision?

Shouldn't we make good choices, then? For them? Make the world a place where everyone gets a choice--the choice to live. Maybe it's not so cool and fun to stab people in the back and be evil. Maybe the right choices are clearer than you'd like to think. Maybe being a good guy, in a game but much more importantly in real life, is the cool thing to do.

So don't steal the pack of gun. Pay a dollar for it. Don't give your friends the cold shoulder just because you don't see eye to eye. Don't refuse to love someone because of the way they look. Choose to respect your teacher rather than question everything they do. Choose to be a champion of the people, rather than yourself. When you look back on your web of choice, will you like where all the strands of fate lead to? Make the right choices in life.

Make to the choice to live a good life.

What kind of choices do you make? Leave a comment to tell me what your thoughts are!