Wednesday, June 13, 2012

On choice

"The philosopher Odo Marquard has noted a correlation in the German language between the word zwei, which means 'two,' and the word zweifel, which means 'doubt' -- suggesting that two of anything brings the automatic possibility of uncertainty to our lives. Now imagine a life in which every day a person is presented with not two or even three but dozens of choices, and you can begin to grasp why the modern world has become, even with all its advantages, a neurosis-generating machine of the highest order. In a world of such abundant possibility, many of us simply go limp from indecision. Or we derail our life's journey again and again, backing up to try the doors we neglected on the first round, desperate to get it right this time. Or we become compulsive comparers -- always measuring our lives against some other person's life, secretly wondering if we should have taken her path instead." -- Elizabeth Gilbert, "Committed"

3 comments:

Trashsparkle said...

That's really good - life ain't simple, or unpressurised, these days despite all the advantages of modern life xx

Connie said...

hmmmm...really something to think about...always wondering about the path not taken...Thanks for this!
Connie*

Shybiker said...

True. Modern life has become very stressful and we see it in the high prevalence of mental illnesses. Even something as ostensibly besign as Facebook is causing people anxiety as they (mistakenly) believe that their friends are living better lives than they are.