Decisions, incisions

"Nurse, hand me that scalpel."

A decision may sometimes have life changing impact. The choice may show up unannounced, and it may suddenly demand all, or most, of your attention – to the point that not staring it in the eye will eat you alive. Or at least that's how it makes you feel – until you do decide. But how are you to decide? There's way too much at stake, here. Your future isn't just your future – it is intertwined with many other forward moving paths.

"Number 10. Hand me the number 10."

I'm pretty sure that the more monumental decisions would lead to multiverses that are rampantly different. But don't all decisions have life changing impact? I bet there's a parallel universe to all of them.

"At the junction of lateral one-third and medial two-third of the spinoumbilical line, we draw an oblique incision."

I have this theory about the 1º of change.

Imagine, on a graph, you deviate your path from the x-axis by 1º – initially, you won't even be able to distinguish your path from a perfectly horizontal line. But as you move forward, as you continue extending that line, the distance between the 1º deviant and the horizontal axis will not only become apparent, it'll keep increasing.

"You will be going home with sutures in place. You have to keep it clean, and it wouldn't harm to stay away from pets for a while. Don't take off the bandage for a day or so – you call me if there's anything about this that worries you."

A decision may sometimes have life changing impact, and even small decisions may lead to increasingly divergent paths. But incisions heal, sometimes, very quickly. Sometimes, they leave no scars behind, too. But they have to be made, in a very small pocket of time.

Time is of the essence, and even decisions come with an expiration date. An incision made a day later may have no impact at all. Would you want that, versus, say, life changing impact?

"Thanks, doc!"

Daybreak

I am, by no account, a morning person. I do wake up at a reasonable time (for myself) in the AM – but that's usually for class or work. However, the only acceptable measure of will is defined by what you do when no one's looking, and at that time, you'll see me wake up infinitesimally close to the afternoon.

I can stay up all night – that's very doable. But waking up at 7:30 in the morning to get a healthy start to the day? How about "just five more minutes of sleep?"

Regardless, however, I chance upon waking up early occasionally. I don't know how it happens, but I'll be up, and I'll throw my hand around on my bed in a hunt for my phone, and I'll take a quick look at the time before the screen's luminescence makes me wince the one eye that I'm looking with.

Post 4:00 AM, the read feels like quite a victory. Today, it was 4:25.

I derive a certain kind of pleasure from waking up in the wee hours of the morning. This kind of time, when the commotion is yet to start and the birds are yet to start chirping – this kind of time delivers so much peace.

I make sure to take a good look at what's happening outside, even though the world out there is still – just the way it was left at some point of the night. And then, I come back down into my blankets.

Laying in bed, with my thoughts covering the ceiling never otherwise feels so good.

It makes me question my morning-orientation, and makes me wonder why I don't wake up this early more often.

Time ceases to exist, and it makes me question the decisions I've made in my life, and the ones I'm yet to make. It makes me want to apologize to everyone I may have wronged. It makes me want to thank everyone who's ever made me smile. It makes me ponder upon the future. It makes me ponder upon the past.

It makes my eyelids the projector screen that the ceiling was. And I sway back to sleep.

In the distance, however, it is now 7:30 AM. Daily commute begins for someone who, perhaps, owns a motorboat and decides to manoeuvre it on concrete and asphalt. And I open my eyes to a ceiling that doesn't seem like it had ever been a projector screen for thoughts.

And it makes me wonder why I had ever thought of waking up early.

For now, just give me five more minutes.