#6 - The Choice is Ours (The Year of 52)

We're all influenced by our environments. Grow up in southern California and your life will be colored by beach and mountains, surfing or swimming and skiing as normal. Experience childhood in the country, surrounded by cornfields and soybeans, with your nearest neighbor a "country block" of more than a mile, and your life will be different. Not worse or better, just different.

I was born in Indiana during January of 1964, just months following the assassination of JFK. We moved to Cincinnati's eastern suburbs in 1967, purchasing a house that was temporary because my dad worked for IBM and it stood for "I've Been Moved!" 40 years later my mom moved out of the house.

I vividly remember a family dinner, let's say it was around 1980, which is summarized with these words: "We're probably moving." The destination was to be Gaithersburg, MD. I found out during that dinner that there had been other possibilities in the years before: Rochchester, NY; Boulder, CO; perhaps Boca Raton, FL. A wide variety of different places that would have brought a different shape to my life. Different people. Different experiences. Different opportunities.

Needless to say we didn't move. It doesn't really matter what happened or didn't, but my father was committed to the stability that comes with longevity. 40 years on a cul-de-sac with a neighborhood of others who were mostly there for that long as well. Did he give up something? more money? a "bigger" title? It doesn't really matter. It was a choice and with choices come consequences.

I remember looking up the High School swimming results in Maryland. It was that serious of a possibility. I'm pretty sure of some things that wouldn't have happened had the move happened:

• meeting and marrying Stephanie...and therefore our children and grandchild
• college swimming at Cincinnati and teammates - where would life have taken me on the East Coast?
• career in Ohio - would we have connected with a different denomination?
• opportunities with swim officiating
• and all of the relationships

These are the kind of things that came about because of geography and relationships. Other things would have happened but I never wonder what.

Our choices have lasting effects. We aren't always conscious of the impact when we make choices, small waves of our wings that create far reaching disturbances. Our choices are the pebbles, sometimes the rocks, that create the ripples making changes in the landscape. 

A recent conversation with a child reminded me of all this. "What choice should I make," I was asked. My response: "It's your choice. Make the best choice you can with the information you have today."

We choose our spouse if we want to get married. We choose a career, for the most part, although sometimes we just need a job and figure it out from there. We choose with the information we have at the time. If we're smart, then we'll figure out how to make it the right choice down the road. What choice will you make today?