Making Choices: The Good (and Bad) Place

​I don’t disagree that we should be conscious of what we owe others every time we have a choice to make. But can we truly consider what we owe others if we don’t start with what we owe ourselves? This post is about choices. I chose to write it some time ago for the proF series on #choices and have been stuck as I work through paragraph by paragraph: choosing sentences and then deleting them, selecting words and then changing them, settling on an approach and then altering it. It’s just so damn hard to choose how to write about choices! What if I choose the wrong approach? What if the choice doesn’t make sense? What if my chosen topic, story line, syntax and ultimate conclusions are judged to be unimportant, inadequate, ineffective, boring or . . . all the above?! But on second thought, what if my decision to write about choices resonates with someone? What if my choices make a difference? What if I worry less about what, how and why my choices affect others and just choose to write something that allows me to reflect and feel satisfied? Therein lies the challenge with choices. What are they, how many do we have and why do we have them? Do we make them for ourselves or for others? How can we possibly choose? My latest television obsession (well, one of them) is the NBC comedy The Good Place. (Read on at your own risk, as there are SPOILERS herein.) The show brings together a cast of characters that, upon their untimely deaths, arrive in “the good place” – a beautiful and perfect version of eternity. While the four main characters outwardly appear to be “good” people who deserve to be in the good place (with the exception of one character, played by Kristen Bell), they are in fact exceedingly troubled (and selfish) individuals who have made some questionable choices throughout their lives. I adore Kristen Bell’s humor, so watching the show came naturally to me. But I really fell in love with the show’s premise several episodes into the first season