Decisions make people. The choices people make and those others make on their behalf come together to make them. A man is affected by not only his choices but those of others as well. Whatever you have been able to become today was not only based on your choices but other people’s choices and decisions that influenced you in one way or the other.
Adam made a choice for himself but at the end of the day, he made a choice for us all. Every choice you are making today is being done on behalf of your future generations. That is how far choices can go. Everyone either pays for it or is paid for it!
Adam consulted no one when eating of the fruit in the garden. It was his personal decision but eventually, we all had to pay for it. If not for his choice, we all would have been running around naked in a garden without giving a hoot about how we may have to pay for utilities. A man’s selfish desires eventually put everyone at risk. In life, our choices have a huge influence on not only us but others, too. These choices, whether good or bad, redirect their course of life.
Choices are vital in our lives because we are all products of them. The choice of a school you made back in the day, for instance, has contributed to who you are today. The choice of a course your parents made on your behalf has somewhat influenced the course of your life.
A single decision can turn everyone’s life around entirely― for good or bad. Just as Adam’s decision turned your life around, your decision today can also change the course of another man’s life even though they haven’t been born yet. We all need to carefully ponder over our actions and inactions every second because like Adam, we may be the reason others will have to endure untold hardship though they had no hand in it!
We all need to know the importance of decisions and choices. They carry great power because they eventually define us. They change everybody’s direction in life. A man becomes what he repeatedly says. He becomes the decisions he always takes. There are no good or bad people. We only have people who make good or bad decisions… always!
Choices have rippling effects. There’s never a personal decision. Every single choice we make goes a long way to affect everybody; even those yet to be born. The choice of Steve Jobs, for instance, changed the course of history. It changed the way we live and will continue to change the way posterity lives. The decision of every man affects others somewhat.
Our choices affect everyone around us. When a man resorts to multiple sexual partners, it may be a personal choice but the consequences may not be personal. They put their children at risk. When the STDs come knocking, everyone around them may have to respond. Every man needs to know that whatever decision they are taking will not only affect them but everybody!
In the Eden garden, Adam thought he was eating the apple for his own sake. Well, he was punished and we all got a fair share of this punishment. Though we have no idea about where and how Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, we are all still paying for their wrong somehow.
Though we played no role in the independence struggle led by Kwame Nkrumah and his colleagues, we are all enjoying the freedom today. Despite the fact that most of us were the supposed posterity when Ghanaians were making a choice to be independent, here we are today enjoying the fruits of that struggle. Choices go a long way to affect everybody!
Good choices and decisions have rippling effects inasmuch as bad ones do, too. The bigger picture of our choices is that we are not only the ones it will benefit. We are not the only ones such choices will cost if they are bad ones. If who we are today is not as a result of only our choices but those of others as well then it is obvious that we all should ponder carefully over every decision we take each day of our lives.
Each second of our life is a decision and we need to take such decisions with utmost tact and wisdom. A decision not to take a decision is even a decision. Choices are so essential that a man can’t afford to make one when he has thought about such only little. A man can’t take the risk of making impulsive decisions because every one of such decisions goes a long way to be a debt or investment in not only our lives but in the lives of posterity.
Every decision or choice of yours today is a future debt or investment. Think critically through such. It will later become a price you will pay or a profit you will be paid!
Like Adam, every day of our lives brings us a forbidden apple. That apple may be a bottle of alcoholic beverage. It may be a bleaching pill. The forbidden apple may come in the form of stealing from the government coffers or cheating on your spouse. You may want to eat that apple to satisfy your immediate pleasures but… always remember the many others who may have to suffer because of your choice.
The freedom of tomorrow’s generation depends on the right things we will do today. Wherever you find yourself today, remember you are in the shoes of Adam. What you do wrong today will go a long way to affect everybody tomorrow. Choose to do right!
By Kobina Ansah
The writer is a Ghanaian playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com), an Accra-based writing firm. His new play, THE BOY CALLED A GIRL, shows on July 20th at National Theatre. Call 0269654873 for details