Cut loose the life you decided not to live. Just cut it.
Ever wonder what coded messages the ancients left for us in language?
All of our histories are written into our language, one way or another. Like, take the word “knight” as in a “knight in shining armour”.
Apparently, when that word first entered the English language, centuries ago, it was pronounced as it was written. Like, ‘k-nig-h-t’ or something like that.
(I think it was a German word originally).
Then, at some point, in the space of like ten years, people in London just started pronouncing it ‘nite’. Suddenly, the poems of the age stopped rhyming knight with megahertz, and started rhyming it with ‘bite’.
And no one knows why.
The entire English language pivoted on a 2 cent piece and no one thought it was worth writing down why they did it.
I guess there was only like 200 of them at the time so they probably didn’t think it was important.
So every word tells a story.
But the one that’s always interested me is our ‘cision’ words. ‘Cision’ comes from the latin word ‘to cut’ but then it goes and shows up in a bunch of random words.
Some are pretty clear. ‘Incision’ makes sense obviously – to cut into. Then there’s ‘Circumcision’ – to cut the circus.
But then precision is a little looser – I guess it’s like to cut off all the fat and excess, and cut right down to the fine detail. And do that first before you do anything else… Um, I guess it’s not exactly clear what they were thinking there.
But then there’s ‘decision’.
From Dictionary.com:
“1425-75; late Middle English decisioun < Middle French < Latin dēcīsiōn- (stem of dēcīsiō) literally, a cutting off, equivalent to dēcīs(us) (past participle of dēcīdere; see decide ) + -iōn- -ion”
“A cutting off.” How is a decision like a cutting off?
For a long time, this one never sat right with me. The whole cutting thing seemed like an oddly violent thing to pair with making a choice.
I guess I would have gone with something more measured and considered. Maybe pull in the word for “weigh” or something.
But no, in 1425, they went with cut.
What were they thinking?
I have two theories. You can tell me which one sits better with you. Which one is a better match for what it feels like when you make a decision?
Unresearched Theory No. 1
I think ‘analysis paralysis’ is probably unique to our generation. I don’t think previous generations had the same amount of information on hand, or had to make decisions of similar complexity.
In 1425, most choices were probably pretty simple. Do I plant the field today, or do it tomorrow?
They probably didn’t have to weigh up the pros and cons of an issue the way we do. What career best reflects my innate talents and soul’s true purpose? Do I buy a high cashflow property in a low growth area, or a low cashflow property in a high growth area? Can I still go out for a beer with Bradley, even though he and my wife’s sister are getting a divorce?
First world problems, I know. But I’m not saying the choices we have to make these days are more important – just more complex. There’s a broader field of factors to consider.
But back when it was “plant today? plant tomorrow?” it was probably more straight forward. And in the context of a straight forward decision, ‘cutting’ might be about right.
Line up Option A and Option B next to each other, lop the head off one, and get on with the other.
“I’m doing the fields tomorrow, woman. Bring me some ale.”
But I also think this is a good way to think about decisions. It involves a certain element of death. Of killing.
I mean, when the road forks, we’ve got to chose one path to live out. The other path, and all the possibilities and promises that went with it, has to die.
We have to cleave it from our life story, and say, yep, there would have been many wonderful things about that particular direction. But it’s not where I’m going.
I don’t think we’re all great at being that ruthless. We like to nurture the different life paths under our care. I don’t want to commit fully to this path, because I’m still interested in exploring this direction. I don’t want to commit fully to my career in real estate because I’m still holding out hope that a country music label is going to discover my talents.
We need to be more ruthless. See the decision as a blade. Make the cut, and move on.
It’s what the ancients would have wanted.
Unresearched Theory No. 2
Want uninformed opinions? I’ve got hundreds of them. So I wonder if the ‘de’ in decision, is actually about removal – as in de-humidify.
De-cision in that sense is the removal of the cut.
It’s about moving from a place where you’re in two minds about something, back to a place where you have a single mind.
It’s about moving from a place where your mind is entertaining all sorts of possibilities, back to a place where you are single-mindedly focused on the path ahead of you.
Again it’s about letting go of the alternative realities you could be living in, and bringing yourself back to the life you have in the here and now.
Any cuts and partitions in your mind are gone. Your mind is healed and whole.
Your determination is resolute.
It’s what the ancients would have wanted.
What do you think?
There’s no way of knowing what the ancients had in mind, but I think both theories point to an important but often over-looked part of decision making. That is the ability to let go of the road not chosen.
To cut it from your life, or to remove the cut that allowed part of your brain to live in that potential reality. To let that alternative reality die, and to give yourself fully to the choice you made.
Just as the ancients would have wanted.
How does decision making feel to you?
ron goddard says
hi jonno,
ah yes the parallel universe we inhabit in our lives. the path less travelled is the one i chose.
from the security of a bank job to a life of free choice when 29 years. my wife was purplexed!
but she didn’t complain…well not then.
decision making has many sort of problems for today’s person. the complexities of a life now are almost overwhelming for us. we in oz are living in a fool’s paradise. we can plan, plot, scheme, connive and generally scourge a life we think that we want, but in reality we are merely cannon fodder for the elite. but then, if it wasn’t for the elite, the powerful, the rich etc. where would we be?
alan lead me to a very good article about the currency of the world which i have read and confirms what i have been reading about the past 4 or 5 years regarding the ‘fed’; that quasi, psuedo ‘government’ parasitical ‘bank’ that has bastardised world currencies since 1913. the u.s.treasury(citizens of u.s.a supported).actually pays a 6% rate of interest annually to this bank with no tax payable because its a ‘government bank’. the last payment was a trillion dollars u.s. i bet nobody here thought of that. my parallel universe wants in on that one. and kiwi al made some points too.
bitcoin. now there is a curly one. to buy or not to buy? my answer is a flat no! in any ‘boom’ there are 5 stages:
1. establishment of the product commodity,
2. advertising/awareness stage when nervous buyers come in increasing numbers.
3. fast, rapidly increasing buying sending the price up, up etc.
4. euphoria…the euphoric stage when prices head for the moon.
5. panic.!! when the jews have sold out and bought gold and the poor ‘investors’ have done their shirts.
i was told yesterday by a ‘silk’ who is rather clever: ron stay away from bitcoin like the plague.
he deals in bankruptsies and his fees are in the millions. he only deals with rather large bankruptcies and is very busy right now.
we have seen this scenario many times, so why do people keep doing this? i have read that history is a guide to the future. i guess nobody reads history anymore.:-) anyway bitcoin is valued against the u.s. dollar, which in turn is valued against…ah well ..nothing really. so if the dollar goes under where does bitcoin stand or float or whatever? since the ‘gold standard’ was taken away nobody really knows the value of our ‘currency’. which gets back to ‘what is money’? is money tangible or intangible? is ‘currency’ real or merely a plaything for the elites?
jonno, the english language is a diabolical mixture of french, italiano, greek, english, mod. rock, etc.etc. the new terminologies of today are bewildering. take punk rockers and that rap stuff. its a different language. language evolves like everything else. a good read is ‘sarum’ by david rutherfurd. a 1,300 page epic dating from the end of the last iceage(10,000 years ago which we are still coming out of- yes global warming, but its not manmade) up to modern times.
well thank you for your forum for today jonno. it got me thinking again.
cheers, from west oz
steve christo says
Agree … 100% … I’ve been trying to teach my kids that the overall success and quality of their life is largely dependant on the hundreds of little decisions they make every damn day … for some reason they don’t see it that way.
From the time the alarm clock makes that awful noise …. do i get up now or snooze for another 9 minutes … do I get up and go for a run or laze about playing with the cat … do I stay in bed and pretend to be sick and not go to school at all because the science teacher annoys the crap out of me…. When i wake up do I say good morning to mum and dad with a smile even though I don’t really feel like it but I’m gonna PUT ENERGY INTO making it a great day even if I know the history assignment is due today and I haven’t finished it … do I seek out my usual friends at school and only hang out with them or do I be pleasant to other students who look up to me because I’m one of the seniors in my school or do I scowl at them and tell them to leave me alone … do I put my hand up and answer questions when teachers ask or do I shrivel up into a ball of invisibility … do I walk home briskly and get stuck into finishing that history assignment or do I go out for a coffee with my girldfriends after school and turn up just before dinner … do I unstack the dishwasher / washing machine / dryer / take rubbish out WITHOUT mother asking me so that SHE doesn’t have to feel like she is constantly nagging me (maybe that would earn me some browny points to soften the blow of not having done History assignment on time) … do I help with dinner or only come out when my name is yelled out for the third time and the rest of family has basically finished their meal so I pout and take mine back to my room so I don’t get asked “how was school” … do I apply for weekend casual work at a low life fast food restaurant to get some runs on the board and show my folks and the world and myself that I can grow to stand on my own two feet or do I just ask mum for money when I need it (cause it’s easier than the grilling dad puts me through) … do I select subjects in year 11 that are harder but more rewarding or do I just do the easy stuff to get through high school with least amount of stress.
This is but one day’s worth of decisions … if only they knew how many more decisions need to be made when you become an adult and get a job and a place of your own that needs cooking and cleaning.
In my moments of reflection I wonder if my theory on financially successful people has merit … it goes a little something like this :-
“YOU GET PAID IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE, MONEY, MATERIALS OR OTHER PROBLEMS YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR AND THE MORE COMPLEX THE SITUATION YOU ARE FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR, THE MORE YOU GET PAID”
Would love your feedback.
Love the provocation of thought that comes from the office of JG LOGIC.
Regards to all. Have a great weekend.
ron goddard says
sorry jonno, me again. i had to write about the ‘beatles’ and their clever little song : strawberry fields: nothing to get hung about strawberry fields forever. . are we halucinating ? is your life really a life?
i think that john lennon and paul macartney were musical and life geniuses(genii?) the stuff they wrote is valid today even moreso. cheers again ron from west oz across the nullabor
KatM says
Intuition is infallible in decision making.
If your parents have a done a reasonable job guiding you in you in your early years; you have a smattering of history, philosophy, religions, social crafts (‘sciences’ really doesn’t fit when talking about politics, law & economics); you understand geography, physics, speak a couple of languages, then it becomes straightforward attaining a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
Unless one charts a career of an elite sportsperson or a renowned performing artist where you’re under continual public media scrutiny. I have no personal experience of that.
Doubt is the number stumbling block in making effective decisions. Everyone who wishes to succeed has to rely on faith and understanding to back up their decisions. We have to trust others that they’ve satisfactorily analysed/valued what we are investing in. ASIC & consumer protection can’t keep up with sophisticated scams that rip off thousands via ubiquitous technology.
James’ epistle is short and reminds us about making right decisions. Don’t forget to thank God everyday for all the resources and goodness that are accessible to us. Our children will have to against unbelievers, scammers and terrorists.
Kiwi says
From wherever it De-Cided, Google gave me this:
“… from Latin decidere ‘determine’, from de- ‘off’ + caedere ‘cut’.”
Maybe, it comes from merchandising? E.g. buying cloth, buying meat, buying whatever.
“Tell me where you want me to cut off what you want.”
You decide!
ron goddard says
hi jonno,
where did my first letter go? did you decide not to print it? was it unacceptable to you?
what are the parameters then?
or was it too concise for you? did it strike too close for comfort? my beatles message looks out of context without my first message.
cheers, ron
edd says
Hi Ron,
What happened to your first post? I was really enjoy reading it, and suddenly disappeared!!! May be someone CENSORING it… I enjoy your posts.
ron goddard says
hi jonno if you are gonna censure posts because they are too close to the truth maybe we won’t bother. some people actually like reading them:-) there are no naughty words in them ..so have a great day! cheers, ron