Choices and Decisions: Entscheidung

You can’t eat your cake and have it at the same time. Growing up, this was a very common adage that was used around me, and I did not really understand it. Today I think I have a clearer picture of what it actually means. It means you must be ready for the consequences of your choices and decisions, and not just be ready, you cannot run away from the consequences of your choices and decisions.

Take a look around you, and you may see that we try to avoid this law of life. I say it is a law of life because even when you look at it literally it makes sense and not just that, it proves to hold even when ignored. If you were given a beautiful cake as a birthday gift and you eat it before the celebration day, there will be no cake to display on that day (except you get another one of course). Similarly, if after weighing all the parameters involved (which we seldom do) and even make plan B or C, you cannot run form the consequences of the choices you turn in.

If you decide that marriage (that glorious institution) is for you, whether you understand the basic dynamics of marriage or not, you become subject to the benefits and detriments of marriage. Moreover, marriage does not exempt you from being human and so the normal day to day personal hassles of life are still there for you to deal with too. Now the consequences are showing up, does it mean that you were wrong? Or were you ill-prepared? Solutions abound and these are choices too. Backing out is another viable option – often a duds selection. It could however be a gallant decision to make in some cases. Whichever way the decision pendulum eventually swings, these are also choices and their consequences are waiting for expression.

If you opt for a particular career that you like and have fervor for. Even your deep passion does not exempt you from the consequences of your choice. Maybe you find out that some of the current practices of the profession conflict with your embedding values and philosophies or even the laws of humanity. Choice beckons! What’s the next step? Will you just tag along? Will you back out? Or will you carve out a niche for yourself? Making it known that their way is not necessarily the true one. The choice is still yours, but you can’t eat your cake and still have it.