Ideas and the Quandary of Choice

What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed — fully understood — that sticks; right in there somewhere.

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What does it take to change the world- A thought, an action, a nuance of fact? What does it take to alter life, not just one but the entire flow of it, the entire width and breadth of it? An Idea, you say, well spoilers were in the header (high five!) but yes, I’ll give it to you, you’re right…

And To re-quote one of my favorite movies:

What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed — fully understood — that sticks; right in there somewhere.

-Cobb, Inception

I love that quote for the question framed, the lurking doubt that ideas, original or not never leave… They exist in our heads, haunting us, taunting us, torturing us with the sweet scent of possibility. Dangling the carrot of change right before our eyes, baiting us, willing us to take the bite, to take the plunge and act on it…

Our ideas aren’t always great… remember the time you snuck off with John’s bike and got found out or that time you had the excellent idea to tell your crush you loved her only to be shutdown faster than a hanging PC (Computer puns, anyone?) , or that time when you decided to find out what happens when you put an aerosol can in fire, or was that just me? Oh, Ideas… We love them when they get us out of trouble and hate them when they get us there faster than a quantum computer crunching numbers (Computer puns… Yeahhhh!! Someone? Anyone? No-one?)

But pause, wait, tarry a second and lets review that, There exists an error in this line of thinking. Ideas aren’t to blame for our actions, for ideas aren’t actions. Ideas are abstract thoughts, nuances, agglomerations of fact and fantasy bound together in the spinning infinite wonder that is our brain. So if the ideas aforementioned didn’t get you or I into trouble, then what did….

Ah, you guessed it (five points for checking out the header… again!!);

Choice.

Choice… That infamous fork in the road, that which precedes decision and known best of all for its inability to exist alone. Yep!! Choice is inherently legion, multitude, a choice is at its smallest point binary and at its largest infinite in scale. It presents us with the ultimate form of presumptuous questioning… “If”… That lovely question of what happens if a choice is picked and a decision made. I believe this is what human imagination was built for, the ability to take established fact and predict to any degree of accuracy what would follow a decision (mine tends to be zero…) …. But I digress, Let’s get back to the root of this issue…

Ideas present us with a choice, To do or not to do… While most ideas are not easily defined by this binary mode of decision making, they inevitably lead to one point: A decision… A binding contract to carry out a specified set of actions, real, virtual or abstract. The decision and its follow through, dear friends, is what gets us into trouble, its what breaks a heart into pieces, or puts a smile on a face. Its what leads to the greatest steps of mankind and the worst atrocities ever witnessed. It leads us to the highest points in our lives, the zenith of our existence and the lowest depths we have ever sunk.

So should we be afraid of them? These lovely pieces of imagination, these wandering flashes of brilliant thought… The answer is two-fold… You guessed it… A choice… We truly cannot embrace everything our minds float infront of us, But we also cannot blind ourselves to the brilliance that is our thoughts. We have to assess, reassess and ensure that we take action on only the fruitful, the best, sometimes the funniest of them all. But most of all, we have to cherish them… For ideas are sparks that can light the most brilliant light humanity has ever seen or light the greatest fire to ever scourge the earth…

All that starts with a quote, must end with one:

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea. – Buddha

Have an Ideaful day!!!