Choices

With all the debate about health care and other government programs that have been instituted in the last year, it’s really gotten me thinking about choices and how important it is (or isn’t) that people get to choose what they want to happen in their lives. The US President has been quoted as saying that the Constitution does not specify enough what the government is required to do for its citizens, “. . . generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties: [It] says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.”

In the War in Heaven, we fought for right to choose how our lives would go, instead of having someone tell and force us to do exactly what they wanted from us. I feel like that’s the battle we’re fighting now—Who is going to choose our life’s decisions for us?

Last night I went to the high school musical my two youngest sisters are in: “Children of Eden”.

The play is the story of the Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Seth, and finally Noah and his son, Japheth. Since the play is not completely within the bounds of LDS beliefs, there were some aspects of it that brought me back to thinking about choices.

All through the play, people had to choose between two good things with no option of having both. I think that’s what got to me. People had to choose between fathers and wives/potential wives and parents and siblings with seemingly dire consequences if they chose poorly.

In the play, Father tells Adam and Eve that they mustn’t ask questions or think too much because he wants them to remain innocent in the garden. When Eve eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Father isn’t forgiving and instead forces Adam to choose between Father and Eve and then acts vindictive when Adam chooses to be with Eve and kicks them out. He never listens to their prayers from the wilderness and leaves A & E hanging with the hope that at some point they will be forgiven, but that never happens.

The character of Father seemed Satanic to me in that A & E weren’t even given the option of choice so when Eve did something contrary, there was no element of forgiveness available, only strict retribution. What is great about LDS doctrine on the Fall is that none of us has to suffer for the choices Adam and Eve made—unlike the generations of Seth’s children who had to pay the price for the actions of their progenitor. Their choices end up being limited by actions of someone generations ago—with no option of making things better.

In the days of Noah, Father wanted destroy the world and finally rid it of the seed of Cain (curst after the killing of Abel) and freaks out on Noah when Japheth hides a girl from the tribe of Cain in the ark. Japheth is then forced to choose between the girl and his family—he chooses the family and only when faced with losing his son, does Noah begin to believe that it will be ok that this forbidden girl be allowed to stay and thus goes against his debate of choosing between Father or his own child.

I liked that people decided to keep their solidarity instead of being led to believe that only one way could possibly be right in the course of their lives. I have fears that too many people today would be ok with an overarching government telling them what to do just so they didn’t have to take their own consequences for their own actions seriously.

Students of mine would rather believe that my classroom structures affects their actions instead of them taking responsibility for what they need to be doing. It drives me nuts! It’s this belief that goes along with a president telling people that the government knows what’s best for peoples’ lives than they do. Heaven help us if we get to the point where more people would rather just be told what to do with fines or prison or death being the consequences than taking the heartache, pain, or trails that come from everyday living and life.