An ode to the importance of choice in transitory life, and the essence of our responsibility in this fleeting world . . .

How long have you lived?

How long do you have left?

The first we know, the second is a mystery. We don’t know how long we have, nor do we have the closure of knowing what will become of us. That is part of life’s journey — to venture into the unknown, every day, towards a future that is nigh a glimmer in our minds.

I will be blunt, because all truth is blunt in a sense. This is nothing new. This is simply what is: life is transitory, only made up of this moment, and the only thing we can do is decide how to use it moment by moment, day by day, year by year. That is life. That is our lives.

Choose.

Decide.

What are you doing?

What am I doing?

What are our choices doing?

What will they make of us?

Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, wrote in his book Man’s Search for Meaning that life is transitory, fleeting, and so very precious. How can it not be? It can be taken at any moment. It is never a guarantee. And all we have is this moment, this very moment, and how we use it determines our destiny.

When we realize this, as Viktor said, we come to see what constitutes the heart of our responsibility in this world — the ultimate question of our existence:

What choices will we make real, what ones will we let fall into oblivion?

“Man constantly makes his choice concerning the mass of present potentialities; which of these will be condemned to nonbeing and which will be actualized? Which choice will be made an actuality once and forever, an immortal ‘footprint in the sands of time’?” ~Viktor Frankl

We choose what meaning to put into our lives, whether we know it or not. 

• The person who drifts through life without ever thinking about its precious nature has obliviously made that choice every moment.
• The person who in the present follows a path of vice and lets the potential for a better life fall into unbeing has made a choice.
• The person who, in this very moment, lays a stone for a foundation that builds towards a beautiful legacy has made a choice as well.

What choices will you make today?

What will you irreversibly trace in the sands of time?

What will you not do, and let fall into the oblivion of unbeing?

These will be done one way or another, and will culminate to constitute our lives. It’s not a choice we can back out of. Every second asks it of us, and every second it gets its answer. The only power we have, is to choose — and it is a duty, a gift, a tremendous responsibility.

“At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence.” ~Viktor Frankl

What will your monument be?

What will you leave behind?

What will your life stand for?

You must make that decision every day. You must make it now. You and you alone. It’s the most important decision of your life — for it is, in the end, your life, in all its fleeting beauty and potential, in all its fragile wonder.

Choose.