"The idea of a 'decision' is a quintessentially Western idea, an act of hubris to a believer in Eastern philosophy and a joke to the enlightened. (Can you imagine Buddha or Lao-tzu making a decision?)"
- Ron Howard, Professor at Stanford (not the actor/director)
If reaching the enlightenment of Buddha or Lao-tzu is a thousand mile journey, I'm sure that I've taken only a few steps...
Frodo: "...I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Such a simple, yet immensely empowering statement. Even in the depths of Moria, lost, confused, sad, this statement offers hope. Even in the most unpleasant of circumstances, we have choices, if only to decide how we will cope with the difficulty.
We are driven by so many unconscious, subconscious, latent, neurotic impulses and motives, I wonder how often any of us truly make decisions. We do things to please our parents; we do things to piss them off. Either way, we're still reacting to what they did or did not do for us.
We want to fit in. No one wants to be singled out, unless you reach that elusive point where being unique makes you rich and famous. Until that point, it's best to hide amongst the others, so that no one pays you unwanted attention. So we buy the "right" clothes, car, food, wine. We read the right books (or at least the reviews) and watch popular movies so we can talk about them in the office or with our friends.
If you think this fascination with decisions is one of those bourgeois luxuries, consider that making decisions in the face of unimaginable, yet all too human, difficulty is an even more powerful theme. Read Vicktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, an absolutely absorbing book about his experience in Auschwitz. In his book, he states:
"After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."
Even as we approach death, we can make powerful decisions. I recall reading an article about famine in Niger, about a small child who was at the point of death. He had great difficulty breathing, much less doing anything else. Yet on the particular day that the reporter was writing the article, he decided to sit up--an incredible act for someone so frail. Not a big deal? I still remember it to this day, and I still find it inspiring.
Our societies make interesting "decisions" as well. We watched a show on PBS about diamonds. How the entire planet has made this particular mineral so valuable. How an entire industry has responded a fabricated lust for this particular rock. I suppose extreme circumstances make it evident what is important. In the post-apocalyptic world in the Showtime series Jeremiah, during one episode, the lead character says "there's only here...there's only now." There are material goods that remain important in this environment. People trade food, clothes, batteries, but I don't recall much diamond trading taking place.
It's worth noting that Frodo and Gandalf's exchange in Moria takes place just after Gandalf shows the Fellowship how deep the dwarves mined into the mountain seeking mithril. And how much they wasted their lives by not deciding what to do with the time that was given to them.
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