The most crucial decision in your entire life
Some of us like to make decisions; others are having trouble with it. Life is full of them, and if we pay close attention, we can see that each and every day is full of choices. Most decisions are quite banal: what do I eat for breakfast, what do I wear today, do I take the bike or the bus to get to work?
Some decisions are much more intricate and often take a long time: what career should I take? Whom should I marry, or should I marry at all? Where do I want to live and how? Do I want to have children?
But there is one decision in our live that is like no other. This decision has already been taken for us — if we want or not. Unfortunately, it is the most critical decision of our entire existence. But none of us gets the chance to make this decision. None of us has any part in the process: it is entirely taken from us: where and when we are born.
It makes an extreme difference if you are born as the 10th child of a poor woman in Africa or as the sole child of a millionaire in the U.S. It makes a difference if you were born in the 14th century in Europe or in the 21st century in Japan.
Of course there are still options and choices in the life of (nearly) everyone. But they are determined in large parts by the basic fact when and where you are born. Life is like an unfair long-distance running competition: some start further ahead than others.
So — if nobody is allowed to decide where he or she is born: how can we be proud of our heritage? How can we think someone is better than someone else? I have never been able to grasp the concept of pride in your country or something else that is totally random to you. Sure, you have every right to be proud when you accomplish something. But to be proud to been born in one country or another?
