January 11, 2021
Sylvia Plath, one of the first and foremost feminist poets of the 1960's, wrote only one semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar. While frequently referenced in pop culture, it often gets reduced to a daydream the protagonist Esther has while bored at a large group dinner:
The face value message seems loud and clear. Choose something, and do it. Failure to do so means doors close and second degree consequences thereof. Plath then goes on to end the daydream with Esther waking up back at the dinner, and ending the chapter with:
<aside> ⚠️ "Oh, I realized I was just hungry"
</aside>
It's human nature to try and find a lot of meaning out of every fork in the road, every moment when we're faced with making a decision. The act of deciding itself endues a great deal of pressure, grief, and anxiety.
Whatever the decision, it's only hard because we choose to make much of it. Don't
The truth is, rarely any decision alone is of serious consequence, and our path isn't one made of decisions and consequences. Where we end up is usually about about acting with consistency, a byproduct of a million decisions we make, often ones we don't make with a ton of awareness. When we make too much of any one decision, it's usually because we're vulnerable and scared.
Rather, take a look at each of these figs, and imagine making the most of any of the situations presented. Making choices become difficult and daunting because we often make them defensively, trying to avoid pitfalls and consequences. We rarely realize that thinking is how we end up making weak decisions. If you're going to dream, dream of how well things can be, not of how bad things can get. That's how we end up hungry.
It's beautifully simple, the path that's easiest to dream highly and often of will be the easiest to make the most of.