The Luxury of Choice

It's Fun to Choose, by Dru Cunninham (1988)
http://www.amazon.com/I....
No Copyright Infringement Intended

I came across this quote on Facebook on Tuesday evening:

"Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make. Period."

My search to attribute this quote led me back only as far as Pinterest, which is somewhat discouraging to me.  Someone somewhere decided to string a bunch of words together, didn't take credit for them, and foisted them upon the populace as if they were Ancient Greek Philosophy.

Let's talk about choices though.  I have some questions for you about what you had for dinner last night:

1.  Did you have to take any religious or other dietary concerns into consideration?

2.  Did you stay home or go out?

3.  What cuisine did you have?

4.  Was the meal homemade or packaged?

5.  If it was homemade, were the ingredients fresh or processed?

6.  With whom did you eat?

7.  At what time did you eat?

8.  When was the last time you had that exact same meal?

9.  Was there enough?  If more was available, were you allowed to have it?

10.  If you couldn't finish your dinner, did you have a means to store it and eat it later?

Of course, maybe you were still full from lunch and just decided not to eat at all.   

Whatever your answers to these questions, chances are you had a great deal of choice in the matter.  Sometimes that choice is between two varieties of the oft-maligned Hot Pockets® brand sandwiches or two flavors of ramen noodles, but it is nevertheless a choice.

While quotes such as the one shared above can encourage people to transcend their condition, and while that is certainly an admirable pursuit, they are ultimately platitudinous in nature and overlook certain realities.

I have seen some of those realities firsthand.

Shortly after my father passed away (as discussed in my entry dated 12/18/2012), I started volunteering for a faith-based non-profit organization that provides food, shelter, and other services to the needy.

The shelter would benefit greatly from arrangements with certain fast food companies, oftentimes receiving hundreds (if not thousands) of frozen personal-sized thick-crust pizzas, various Asian entrees and side dishes, or hamburgers and chicken sandwiches.   

A Depression-Era Soup Kitchen
http://www.ssa.gov/history/acoffee.html
No Copyright or Privacy Infringement Intended

We served what had been generously donated, and that was at a specific appointed time every evening.  If someone was hungry earlier, he had to wait.  If someone arrived late, there was probably no food left.  It was not a buffet or any other type of restaurant.  It was "We're serving XYZ tonight."  Because of the aforementioned arrangements, it was often the case that we had served the exact same thing the previous night, and it was quite likely that we would serve it again the following evening.  Some people took more issue with a perceived lack of  nutritional value of the food than they did with the repetition.  Had it not been for the generosity of the donors though, we may have not been able to provide anything on most occasions.  If the portions were small, it was due to the fact that there were more people than usual in the shelter that evening, and we had to make sure everybody got something.  Second helpings were rare.  If someone couldn't finish his meal, it often went into the trash, because his only means of storage was his backpack, and that promised an unhealthy outcome.

At the risk of sounding harsh, and while this certainly wasn't what we told the already downtrodden people, nor was it our written or otherwise accepted policy, meals boiled down to this:  you eat what we say, when we say, how much we say, with whom we say.  Not enough?  Sorry.  Too much?  No refrigeration.  Sorry.  Don't like it?  Sorry.  Can't eat it?  Sorry.  Sick of eating the same thing numerous days in a row?  Sorry.  There's really nothing that I can do about it.  Sorry.

Thomas Hobson (1544 - 1631)
http://en.wikipedia.org/....
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In fact, there really was very little that could be done to accommodate the "other," as tailoring for one meant tailoring for all, and that was simply not feasible, given limited staffing and the attention that was required for other program services.  As much as we were providing assistance, we were often offering only a Hobson's choice, and that can be extremely dehumanizing to everyone involved.

Were hundreds of people using the shelter every night because of the choices that they had made?  For some, I suppose it could be argued that choices (e.g., drug use or criminal activity) are why they continued to stay there.  For others though, they were victims of circumstance (such as losing a job),  generational poverty, and/ or institutional racism.  These factors impact education, housing,  transportation, health insurance, and countless other facets of a person's life.  For them, poverty was not a choice.  It was a circumstance, and it compromised their ability to make realistic positive long-term plans.

The quote also does not take the concept of redemption and the reality of judgment into account.  People can choose to make themselves "better" all day long, but society uses suspicion and assumption as tools to confine people within social standings.  One can seem stuck in a position where no amount of effort seems to help, and the system can be  extremely confusing and overwhelming.  This can result in depression, which further hampers one's ability to make decisions, and gone untreated (without health insurance), those decisions - those choices - become less and less rational.

What do you  think?  Do you agree with the quote, or do you think it smacks of judgment?  Please share your experiences (not just your "comments") below.