A Moment

I often come back to this philosophical thought, that our entire lives are that damn Robert Frost poem. That all of our lives are decided by single moments. Moments where we, in an instant, must make a decision. These decisions often have but two choices and the chosen path creates a lifetime of results. These moments do not necessarily feel monumental at the time, but when we look back at our lives, whether it be a few months later or a few years, we come back to these decisions and see how they've affected us. I think about these things often, but what I don't think I've ever done, not a single time in my life is look back at how these events may have shaped another's future. These moments I speak of do not often involve others, so the initial thinking is, they only affect me. This, of course, is irrational and even selfish. I think about the recovering drug addict, their fight, their plight. The decision to take that one final hit, bump, injection, is completely on their shoulders and will transform, not only their lives, but the lives of those who care for them. While the severity of the decisions I speak of is nowhere near as monumental, they have a quiet ripple effect.  Yesterday, while thinking of the senseless killing of George Floyd, I thought about that police officer's decision. In the span of what some are saying is seven minutes, his lifetime of hatred, spurred by ignorance, resulted in a tragedy, which then affected the lives of tens of millions of people, if not more. One man's beliefs, possibly created by his upbringing, his surroundings, and/or his job environment, triggered something within him, which unknowingly awoke an entire world's sensibilities. Now, only time will tell if this man's hatred turns out to be the catalyst for change, but it could. While we should never trivialize another being's death, imagine if George Floyd is the reason the world is a different place ten or twenty years from now. Imagine if whatever he did, good or bad, is the reason laws protect and serve justice properly. Imagine if George Floyd had made an ill-advised decision, which ends up bringing about a series of events that changed this country forever? Some will praise Floyd others will "credit" the officer. Two individual paths, neither probably should have chosen, have already impacted millions. What if their impact is monumental for children that have not even been born? We'll know sooner than that, if in a week, or a month, we even remember George Floyd or if he's just another Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, or Emmitt Till. We know what history says, but history is often altered by a single moment.