More from The Post-Birthday World
“The idea is that you don’t have only one destiny. Younger and younger, kids are pressed to decide what they want to do with their lives, as if everything hinges on one decision. But whichever direction you go, there are going to be upsides and downsides. You’re dealing with a set of trade-offs, and not one perfect course in comparison to which all the others are crap. The idea is to take the pressure off….There are varying advantages to each competing future. But I didn’t want to have one bad future and one good. In both, everything is all right, really. Everything is all right.”
I place far too much weight on decisions. I can agonize over such trivial things as whether to go to the grocery or to yoga. I used to consult my Magic 8 ball with far too little skepticism. This passage sums up the guiding theme of The Post-Birthday World. It’s a refreshing and freeing one for me.