The word “diverge” always brings us unhappy emotions and stirs many thoughts on life. “ Have I chosen the right road? Is my life going on according to my original plan?” Once we choose a way in life, we must face up to new challenges in a new environment. Once we confront with hardships, we will think about the road we do not take. Making choice in life is more difficult than solving a mathematics problem that has a definite answer. It affects your whole life to some extent, although there is no right or wrong. Human beings have complex mind. Maybe we should complain Adam and Eve who eat the fruit of wisdom tree.
I know I have a long way to go, which is like a maze full of choices. Once determined, I should not look back and miss the scene on the road I do not take. Time can only go forward. Anyone who always looks back will lose much at present: this is a punishment from God, just as Lot’s wife, who is turned into a salt post because she looks back at the destroyed city.
Not satisfied with the reality, we want to go back to the past to change everything. In the movie The Butterfly Effect2, Nick tried do such things. But every trial only led to worse conditions. The story ended with his death. I guess the author of this novel must have intense feeling on regret. He himself also wants to go back to the past. So do we. But the magician in movie cannot come true in reality. Can we really go back to the past when we travel at a speed faster than the light according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity? Not practical at present. Then what we can do is to bear those emotions in the bottom of heart and live in peace and gratitude.
We often ask and are asked, “if you have a second choice, what road will you choose?” I want to say, no matter what you choose, you may still go to the present position. There is an old Greek saying, destiny knows better than any of us. Oedipus wanted to escape from his fate, which foresaw that he would kill his father and marry his mother, but just fell exactly into the trap of fate. Life is just making fun of life. Having known about this, what may we be troubled by the road we do not take?
Traditional Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi suggests that people leave the trouble undone. No desire, no pain. It is different from the modern value—no pain, no gain—which is also the start of American dream. Someone would say it advocates a pessimistic view to life. I do not agree. Reading Zhuangzi makes me happy and tranquil. It is a psychological medicine for modern people.
Life is full of uncertainties. Believe it or not, many of our decisions are made on impulse. David Hume believes that life has no necessary Connexion, but chance. For example, if I am not reading Zhuangzi recently, I may have different opinion on this topic. Then in reality, what we are doing, what we come across, what we hear from others will definitely affect, even determine our choice on the diverging.
This is world. This is life. We will compete and survive in our respective way. “And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.” |
