Human, in Time - Just Mike Just

The ability to choose is predicated on the existence of time. Without time, there is no need, and no ability, to choose anything because everything stays the same. Time only exists to measure change. Time exists to allow me to jump back into a state of changelessness, in which there is no suffering. I choose, therefore, to be grateful for time, temporary gift that it is.

Being human also allows me to choose differently. Were I a bacterium, or perhaps a garden slug, my choices would be limited indeed. My menu for choices is much greater if I can choose knowingly and intentionally. Being human lets me predict the outcomes of my choices, so that I can choose knowingly. Being a person also lets me act with intention, so that my choices are acts of volition. Spiders have no choice over whether they spin webs and catch flies.

We can, of course, to choose to relinquish our choice. If I give myself over to an addiction. If I commit a crime and end up in jail. Yet even then, it’s me who might choose to pick up a drink. And if I end up in prison, I can still choose how to respond to that experience. We often choose the same damn thing over and over until we make a different choice.

These two gifts then – being human and living in time – are unique opportunities to change my karma. What I choose to do with the 24 hours I’ve woken into each day is the universe’s gift to me. My gift back to the cosmos is what I decide to create within the limits of that 24 hour packet of time and humanity. May I choose wisely, in the moment.