The road less traveled
Imagine standing in a beautiful lush garden, surrounded by fruits everywhere. Each fruit is different from the other, having a different hue, perhaps a different scent, taste, texture or feel to it, enticing your senses. Each fruit represents a distinct path or approach to life. Choosing one fruit means leaving behind the rest, but attempting to take them all, means not being able to savour one fully. It’s your typical paradoxical situation, where one encounters a dilemma. Such a situation is seen in numerous works, such as Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” which explores the difficulty of choosing between life paths, or in the classic Greek myth of Hercules, who faced the choice between a life of ease or a life of glory.
But today, we will delve into one of the more underground works of literature which talks of the theme of making decisions, this is none other than Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar”, where the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, faces overwhelming choices about her future, career and identity. In complex systems, there is a phenomenon known as “choice overload”, which occurs when too many choices lead to paralysis, or simply, indecision. Esther Greenwood, faced with a multitude of exclusive life paths, finds herself unable to choose. All of us have, or will, at one point, find ourselves in Esther’s situation, so to deal with such situations, we have to apply the right constraints.
The harsh truth is that this analogy of the Fig Tree, reflects the reality that in life, every choice involves some degree of trade-off. The pursuit of one path inevitably means the abandonment of others, and taking them all means never travelling one to its furthest extent.
Life has an ocean of choices, and the boat and paddle is with us to navigate through them and to finally dock at shore – the fulfilment and success that we find in our lives after making the correct decision.
So, keeping the words of Sylvia Plath in mind, let us make our decision – before all the figs wrinkle and go black, and one by one, plop to the ground at your feet.
