Week in review 2024-09

Sometimes life just hits you with perspective.

Note on the week

When you boil it down, Life is just a bunch of decisions. Some of these will be made by you and others made for you. It’s all just a number of crossroads at a scale that none of us could ever really comprehend. As we make our way through the journey of our lives the scope of these decisions might narrow, and sometimes they might grow. Someone else’s path might cross with yours and all of a sudden you’ve got a co-pilot to help you navigate the cosmic maze that is life.

All we can try to do is try to make the best decisions we can - to choose a path that brings us joy, that brings us safety, that provides for the ones we love, that does the least harm to others. The measure of a life is all these decisions bundled together, and the echos and ripples as they impact others. The beauty of a new life is the blank canvas ahead of us, the potential energy, all the big choices and u-turns, the uncertainty, the mistakes and mishaps and that hope that this time will be different.

It is beyond cruel that sometimes the ultimate decision can be made for someone before they ever even get a chance to make a mark on the canvas. The decisions that you had ahead of you will now hang over the rest of us as questions that will never have answers. What would your favourite colour be? Who would your friends have been? Where would your life take you? Would you have your Dad’s nose? Your Mother’s eyes?

This week two of my friends went through the worst thing a couple can face. They’re going to have these questions, and probably a million more, keeping them up at night for a long, long time. Nothing could ever put your own struggles, your uncertainties or fears into perspective more completely.