Choices

Choice is a wonderful thing. But in our modern age we sometimes feel like we have too much of it. The amount of choice we have in so many different areas of our lives can be overwhelming and fairly meaningless all at the same time. But we should never take it for granted. Our freedom of choice has been hard won, politically and economically, over many generations. It’s a product of a successfully functioning democracy and economy.

There have, of course, been many times in history, when the choice of people, both singularly and collectively, has been limited or even nullified. No more so than during the most significant conflict of the last 100 years, the Second World War, where even in ‘free’ countries, young men and women were given no choice but to sign up and serve their countries. Some in Great Britain, like my aunty, were conscientious objectors and refused to take part in the war effort and were imprisoned as a result. Those under totalitarian regimes often met with far worse ends.

War makes us look at choice through a completely different lens and it is this viewpoint that I have tried to examine in the novel I am currently writing. I think it’s important to test your principles, to think about what choices you would make if your country was at war. Some people, who are very patriotic, feel very clear about that, others have more nuanced feelings. Would you fight for your country whether you believed in the cause you were fighting for? What about if you or your loved ones were threatened with imprisonment or death if you refused to fight?

I often wonder if I’ve made best use of my freewill in life, my choices. Who doesn’t? But most of us will never have to consider the life and death choices many people have made in wartime, both leaders, whose decisions impacted millions, and ordinary men and women trying to do the ‘right thing’.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. What is the hardest choice you have ever had to make?