The Self-Denial of Choice

We are our choices – Jean-Paul Sartre

Deciding and forsaking go hand in hand – Anonymous

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To choose a course of action is, by definition, also a self-denying act.

Now, I suppose, presented with an equally desirable option, I could comfort myself, saying, “Well, Paul, you can choose A now, and then later B.”

However, in the instant moment of decision and (given that my choice portends changes both in my life’s course and, more importantly, in me) for the foreseeable future, as B remains unchosen, its potential effects are unrealized, indeed, unknown. Therefore, B, for all it might have been, is merely and at most grist for the mill of my imagination.

© 2021 PRA

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