DECISIONS
The world spins--the Earth on its axis, the galaxy on its, perhaps the whole physical universe is spinning, too, as it expands. I'm not an astronomer, but I know that everything is in motion. I had a friend once--he's been dead many years now, funny how the years speed by--but as we talked of "shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings," he said, "You seem to be interested in everything that moves." And I answered, "And everything moves." We laughed. It was nearly true.

I've lost many of my early interests. Time does that to you. Not having children does that to you. The future folds in upon itself. And our decisions narrow the choices we have tomorrow, or even this afternoon.

We should make no decision carelessly. We all know that, but we do it all the time. And often pay the price. Sometimes it's worth it. Sometimes not. And other times we study a decision to death and still make the wrong choice. It happens to everyone sooner or later.

And some of the most critical decisions seem to the be easiest--to take a shortcut that ends up being a longcut, to park the car here rather than there, to take the elevator rather than the stairs or vice versa, to step out the back door without boots in January not realizing the porch is covered with ice--and we end up paying for the rest of our lives. A single moment can change your whole life. We learn that over and over again, and it seems that we never learn it at all.