Choose To Choose Poem by Edmund V. Strolis

Yes I am a believer in free will. Yet to get to that place where you realize the weight and worth of your choices is a matter of so many influences. I can't imagine nor envy the life of another. I believe in self-awareness and care very little for the path laid out before me by others. I do not care for twice told tales of people that merely parrot a political or cultural philosophy. I am always on the verge of being condemned for having beliefs outside of the accepted views and yet I can say with no amount of modesty that at least my beliefs are mine. How boring to know that if I find out a belief of an individual that the remainder of their beliefs are sure to fall in line like so many dominoes. Emerson said that he was full of contradictions. Yes what I believe today is subject to change. That is called true growth and openness. I readily admit when I am wrong. I consider that a strength. How else can one grow? Why get mired in ignorance like a knight defending a castle of folly armed only with a cardboard shield and a sword from a willow branch.