Meditations for Mortals: Day 3
I'm a day behind. Oops.
Consequences aren't optional. It's in the nature of being finite that every choice comes with some sort of consequences, because at any instant, you can only pick one path and must deal with the repercussions of not picking any of the others.
Whatever choice you make, so long as you make it in the spirit of facing the consequences, the result will be freedom in the only sense that finite humans ever get to enjoy it. Not freedom from limitation, which is something we unfortunately never get to experience, but freedom in limitation. Freedom to examine the trade-offs -- because there will always be trade-offs -- and then to opt for whichever trade-off you like.
I find this a particularly hard lesson to stomach and take joy in. I can tell myself that I accept there are consequences but I often later realize I haven't really accepted it at all. I deceive myself into thinking I can be infinite or can somehow optimize my way to the best path. I don't think a best path really exists though because the set of consequences are many dimensional and not comparable.
There is comfort in realizing that you aren't forced into any path (most of the time). You can choose to ignore an email or work on a different project. There will be consequences but we get to choose which consequence to have.