karma

Sometimes we think. And in some of those times, our thoughts meander over oft-repeated legends, making connections that were meant to be made while remembering those legends. Sometimes it is mythologies, as in the present case. Either way, occasionally we make connections. If we think.

Meandering around my favorite topic of the futility of everything in general, and work in particular, on a Friday morning, I ended up pondering over the, very often passive and occasionally active, choices that we make. And the momentary paranoia that accompanies those occasions of active choice. And I realized that, one can, with a little thought, imagine the reasoning behind the big deal that is Prometheus. It has to be about the desire for that which is beyond our grasp. And the fear of the consequences of having it in our grasp. Our fear of ourselves. Our inability to trust our own selves. And our fear of having to face our true selves. Our desire for freedom versus our fear of responsibility. Of making choices, and paying for the consequences. All this, we go through only rarely. Most often though, we make choices without even a thought. Carefully avoiding to see that we do have a choice, we drift along choices that no man of reason should make. Choices that a man will need to go to infinite lengths to rationalize if forced to explain. Choices that, we swear, were forced upon us. In extreme cases, some like Hanna Schmitz enquire desperately, “What would you have done?” Most, though, fail to see that there was a choice.

It all comes to down to Robert Frost I think, about forks and choices. And it is not just once that we face it. May be this is the only description of life: a series of choices among a host of options. Some itinerary drawn on some map.