With the Rugby chiefs drawing up a short list of coaches for next epoch in All Black history, you have to wonder how they are going to make a decision and on what basis? What we do know is that their underlying hope will be that whomever they appoint will single-handedly coax 15 large blokes to win the next world cup.
Is possible to make such a decision based on that hope considering the momentum of unknown factors that only become apparent when the future turns into the past? They just don’t know. They can’t know!
Like most people I make decisions every daily. In most cases they are easy because I can assume what the outcomes will be. When my 14-year-old son asks to drive the car I can say no without concern – he hasn’t got a license. However, when he has one the decision will not be easy anymore.
All to often circumstances unfold in such a way that making a decision brings about sleepless nights and cold sweats.
The philosopher, SØren Kierkegaard explored this “decision making angst” in books with gloomy titles like, “Fear and Trembling”, “Sickness unto death” and “The concept of dread”. Throughout his writing his famous saying, “anxiety is the dizziness of freedom” is echoed over and again. Kierkegaard claimed that it’s our freedom to choose that creates the anxiety we often face. Because a choice is ours, so is the responsibility.
Watching “deal or no deal” on television I have seen this anxiety in action. It’s not game a game of intelligence, but rather a finely balanced set of statistical chances. Each choice increases or decreases the chance of financial gain. Every decision made is often done so with family members present, so the responsibility vs. risk factor is in constant tension. Any pre-planned way of making decisions is often discarded in the heat of the televised moment.
Personally I don’t like heights. Partly the fear comes from a lack of experience and the very rational terror of falling. Some years ago I visited the Sears Tower in Chicago. Standing on the top floor looking down the fear of falling was over-taken by the realisation that I could actually jump. The axis of my anxiety shifted to the comprehension that the only thing that stopped me doing so was my choice not to.
Choice sounds good, but in many situations, as Sartre put it, “We are condemned to be free”.
Jesus claimed that the “truth sets us free”. The truth he was teaching was not based on individualised philosophy, but in the God given values he lived. Jesus never intended that we wrestle with how those values work on our own. We can only do so with others, which is why we have churches.
Following Christ in daily life is not a solo journey. We can choose to share our decisions with others. This is also a freedom. The responsibility may still be ours, but the angst is halved and we are not alone.
© Digby Wilkinson 2007