Worst Choices Of All

— body language by Weddie Thiên  —

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You stand at a fork and you study the sign,

You weigh and you wait and you wobble in line.

You say, "I'll decide when I'm certain, I will!"

So the days pile up while you're standing there still.

But the clock isn't waiting, it ticks and it turns,

And the choice that you dodge is the choice that still burns.

For not choosing is choosing, it's choosing to stall,

And that is most likely the worst choice of all.

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For the worst choice of all is the choice never made,

And the biggest of risks is the risk you forbade,

And the costliest mistake is to dodge every one,

And your biggest shortcoming is to be perfectly done.

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But hold on! There's waiting, and waiting, you see,

And one is a choice and one only seems free.

If you look at the clock and you say, "Here I'll stand,"

That's a choice with your name and your eyes and your hand.

But if waiting just happens while you're looking away,

That's the drift and the dodge and the not-choosing way.

So stall if you choose to, and choose it out loud,

The stall that you own you can carry unbowed.
 

You'd like to be safe? Then be careful, beware!

For safe is a hole you can hide in down there.

No bruises, no bumps, and no falling, that's true,

But nothing will ever come climbing to you.

The turtle who never pokes out of his shell

Is safe from the hawk, and from heaven as well.
 

You practice not-wrong, you rehearse not-a-flaw,

You polish and hedge, and you hem and you haw.

But nobody learned how to walk without falls,

And nobody learned how to speak without stalls.

The stumble's the teacher! The flub is the door!

And the one who's not flubbing is not learning more.

So make your mistakes at a generous rate,

They're cheap when they're early and dear when they're late.

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Now whatever's worth doing is worth doing bad,

For if you can do badly, then you can be glad.

But if you must do goodly, it turns to a should,

And there goes your innocent, tumbling childhood.

So you knit it quite poorly, but knit it you will,

Till poorly turns better, and better turns skill,

And one day you hold up your lumpy endeavor

And cry, "Look! Good heavens! By golly, a sweater!"

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For the worst choice of all is the choice never made,

And the biggest of risks is the risk you forbade,

And the costliest mistake is to dodge every one,

And your biggest shortcoming is to be perfectly done.

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And perfect? Oh, perfect's such a wonderful cage,

With wonderful bars on a wonderful stage.

You'll wait for the moment when everything's right,

And you'll wait, and you'll wait, and you'll wait out the night.

But nothing that's living is finished or neat,

And nothing that's growing is ever complete.

So trade in your flawless for something that's real,

Wobbly, unfinished, and a loveable deal.

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So choose while it's foggy! Choose when you're unsure!

The map's never finished, there'll be some detours.

Choose small if you're shaky, choose big if you're bold,

But choose while the choosing is yours still to hold.

And when it goes sideways, and sometimes it will,

You'll choose once again, and you'll choose again still.

​

For the worst choice of all is the choice never made,

And the biggest of risks is the risk you forbade,

And the costliest mistake is to dodge every one,

And your biggest shortcoming is to be perfectly done.

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For a life that's not risked is a life that's not spent,

And a spotless clean ledger is time you misspent.

You were built for the messy, the muddled, the try,

Not for standing untouched while the years wander by.

So be wrong, and be early, even be it out loud,

Be gloriously flawed and be gloriously proud.