Intro -“what makes it unbearable is your mistaken belief…
Intro -“what makes it unbearable is your mistaken belief that it can be cured“ “Charlotte Joko Beck Page 60 the original Latin word for ‘decide‘ ‘decidere, means to cut off as in slicing away alternatives, it’s a close cousin to words like homicide and suicide. Any finite life – even the best one you could possibly imagine – is there for a matter of ceasiously waving goodbye to possibility. “Being towards death and “aware that this is it, that life is not a dress rehearsal, and every choice requires sacrifices, and that time is always already running out– indeed, that it may run out today, tomorrow, or next month.
— from Decisions & Choices (Decision/Choice/Focus/Forethought/Consequences) · Four Thousand Weeks-Time Management for Mortals, written by Oliver Burkeman
In the book
Start with what the word itself is hiding. Decide comes from the Latin decidere — "to cut off" — a cousin of words like homicide. To decide is to slice away alternatives; every choice is a ceaseless waving goodbye to the lives you might otherwise have led. That sounds like a loss, and it is — but it is precisely that sacrifice that gives a choice its meaning, because if every option stayed open forever, none of them would matter. — Decisions & Choices (Decision/Choice/Focus/Forethought/Consequences)