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Dec. 4th, 2003 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerDecisions, decisions, decisions.
We all have to make them, small ones on a fairly constant basis, large ones hopefully a little wider apart. They're the junctions of the world, where we choose to make our turnings, and if you joined all your decisions together, you'd see the shape of your life, or at least of those bits of your life you were responsible for.
As I've slowly grown more responsible (or possibly grown more aware of my responsibility), I've become more aware of and focussed on decisions. I found them to be fascinating insights into character - after all, what tells us more about a character than what they choose to do (or not to do). When running and playing games I became interested in the moral choices that people would make, in putting characters into situations where there either was no right answer, or where characters would come up with solutions the others would find abhorrent.
The same was also true of stories in other media - books, comics and films. I lost a lot of interest in stories without a moral dimension - ones where there were no interesting choices to make. I re-read the Narnia series and became disappointed that, as the series progressed, the characters went from making decisions that affected the outcome of events to being pushed from plot point to plot point, being educated at each stage rather than taking any actual part in events.
[Poll #214798]
We all have to make them, small ones on a fairly constant basis, large ones hopefully a little wider apart. They're the junctions of the world, where we choose to make our turnings, and if you joined all your decisions together, you'd see the shape of your life, or at least of those bits of your life you were responsible for.
As I've slowly grown more responsible (or possibly grown more aware of my responsibility), I've become more aware of and focussed on decisions. I found them to be fascinating insights into character - after all, what tells us more about a character than what they choose to do (or not to do). When running and playing games I became interested in the moral choices that people would make, in putting characters into situations where there either was no right answer, or where characters would come up with solutions the others would find abhorrent.
The same was also true of stories in other media - books, comics and films. I lost a lot of interest in stories without a moral dimension - ones where there were no interesting choices to make. I re-read the Narnia series and became disappointed that, as the series progressed, the characters went from making decisions that affected the outcome of events to being pushed from plot point to plot point, being educated at each stage rather than taking any actual part in events.
[Poll #214798]
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Date: 2003-12-04 06:18 am (UTC)The decision that had the biggest impact was probably after I did badly in my A-Levels and was, out of the blue and by accident, offered a place in clearing to take a computing degree rather than the psychology degree I wanted. The computing department rang up asking me if I was interested and, when I gave the impression I hadn't asked for them to ring me, the guy almost hung up on the spot. I can't imagine not being a programmer now (and in a good way :))
Mike