Options

How free are we?
What a seductive question
There is less to it than you might think
The question is an intellectual tease
At first, the news appears spectacularly good

Ask of the human condition are your options unlimited?
The answer seems to come back, yes, unlimited
No observable boundaries
Since nothing has transpired
Nothing has been ruled out

But then make the first move
And you are changed forever
You have learned something of means and tools
With that move, and subsequent ones
Options drop off precipitously

When I chose my topic, options
I strapped myself into a harness
Fixed myself in place as it were
I would be true to my intention
But the word options limited me

That is how our options lop off
Only certain actions are permitted
Given our means and tools
And with these we reach a destination
Which we revise as our chosen one

But the matter is not entirely about me
And where I find myself now
Actions have fairly predictable outcomes
And these results
Constrain subsequent actions

Suppose a person of poverty wakes up
Determined to find a job that day
Grooms herself nicely and heads out
Vowing not to give up
Till her name is on a work contract

Her first stop is McDonald’s
She spends her last three dollars on breakfast
Browses the newspaper want ads
Borrows a pen from the counter clerk
Circles exactly three local jobs

The three companies are spread over the city
So distance to travel would come to 20 miles
Which means, if she walks to each place
She will not be able to get to all that day
And complete applications

Taking a bus is an option
If she is willing to bum bus money off someone
Even at that
She will need a copy of the bus schedule
To plan her circuit of visits

By the time she scrapes the bus money together
Walks to the station
Picks up the bus schedule
Maps out her itinerary
Her confidence is waning

She determines she needs three more dollars
For something to eat midday
It is 10:30 in the morning
The day is getting away
See how her options erode?

Meanwhile across town
A rich girl awakens refreshed
Ready for another day of activity
She showers, has a splendid breakfast
Slips into the car

Hits the cell phone
Books meetings and opportunities to last the day
For fourteen splendid hours she considers only options
Never obstacles
Forgive her if she is deluded

She comes to believe in her own freedom
Indeed that all the world is free
So if money does not buy happiness
I guess from the above
We might say it at least buys options

Indeed, money is just one form of capital
Capital is anything that increases our options
Knowledge can open doors,
As can extortion, coercion, bribery,
Good looks, luck, practice

Is there a useful conclusion to be reached?
I think so, and it’s this
If as we live out our lives
We learn how to consistently
Do what our means and tools suggest

We can keep our list of options as long as possible
It will never be infinite
For perhaps no single word better defines
The human condition than the word finite
This logic is a simplifier

A simplifier with wisdom and it is this…
If I do what “must be done” today
Tomorrow looks much brighter
If I do not
Tomorrow’s options are diminished

And with that in mind
I believe what “must be done”
By me, right now
Is to share a prose poem
With hope for us as its inspiration