“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” (Edwin Markham)

Edwin Markham was a popular American poet during the first half of the twentieth century. At a New Year’s Eve party in 1898, Markham read one of his poems to an editor of the San Francisco Examiner. The newspaper published the poem two weeks later, and the literary career of Edwin Markham was born.

During his lifetime Markham published several collections of verse and edited many poetry anthologies.  His prose work, Children in Bondage in 1914, was a landmark in the crusade against child labor. Much of Markham’s poetry centered on unfair labor practices.

Good analogy

Markham’s quotation is an excellent word picture and analogy. The analogy between our choices and the hinge on a door is useful. It helps us understand that our destiny “rides” on our choices. Our destiny “swings” on our decisions.

One’s destiny is usually not random. Rather it’s the product of innumerable choices over a lifetime. As someone cleverly put it:

First we make our decisions…then our decisions make us.

The analogy of the hinge works nicely. A hinge is what a door hangs on. The door is dependent on the hinges. If there are no hinges, the door has nothing to pivot on. The door becomes a barrier rather than a gateway.

A hinge is a useful device. A hinge allows the door to function as it was designed to function. This is the sense Markham is using hinge in his quotation. He’s saying that our destiny RIDES on our choices. Our destiny DEPENDS on our choices. Our destiny is DETERMINED by our choices. But let’s examine it further.

Our destiny RIDES on our choices

Destiny can be defined as: the predetermined, usually inevitable or irresistible course of events. One’s destiny is not predetermined in the sense that nothing can be done about it. It’s determined by our choices. Not exclusively, of course. If you’re born in a war zone and are killed in enemy cross fire as an infant, your destiny has nothing to do with your choices.

But Markham isn’t talking about THAT KIND of destiny. He’s talking about the kind of destiny that we HAVE SOME CONTROL OVER. Not total control. Total control isn’t possible. But a large measure of control IS POSSIBLE.

So just as a door rides on its hinges—so our destiny RIDES on our choices.

Our destiny DEPENDS on our choices

In a similar way, our destiny must bow to our choices. Not completely, but mostly. Just a few examples of how destiny depends on our choices should suffice.

• The choice of whether to marry
• The choice of whether to pursue further education
• The choice of whether to relocate to a different area
• The choice of whether to practice good health habits
• The choice of whether to be honest and speak the truth
• The choice of whether to be reliable
• The choice of whether to choose friends wisely

Each of these choices has potentially huge impact on your destiny. Again, the choices are not fully determinative. But THEY ARE a tremendous influence.

So just as a door depends on its hinges—so our destiny depends on our choices.

Our destiny is DETERMINED by our choices

This really gets to the heart of Markham’s quotation. He wants us to see the intimate connection between our choices and our destiny. Such a close relationship that our destiny is in large measure DETERMINED by our choices. It’s been said that:

A wish changes nothing. A decision changes everything.

You may wish for something all day long every day your entire life— and very little comes of it. But when you make a DECISION about a wish you have—when you make a CHOICE about it—forces come to bear that can literally change the world, much more your own world. How about a few examples?

• When Rosa Parks chose to remain seated.
• When Hitler chose to invade Poland.
• When Amelia Earhart chose to make that ill-fated flight.
• When Theodore Roosevelt chose to put his 50-page speech in his jacket pocket—stopping an assassin’s bullet enough to save his life.
• When rock musician Buddy Holly chose to charter a plane rather than take a bus to the next venue—allowing time to do laundry. The plane crashed.
• When German field marshall Erwin Rommel chose to make a surprise birthday visit to his wife—his absence nearly ensuring a successful Allied invasion of Normandy.
• When Alexander Fleming chose to go on vacation and leave a dirty petri dish in his laboratory. Returning, he discovered the dish of staphylococci had grown a mold that destroyed the sample around it—and penicillin was discovered.

Single decisions are not usually determinative

Though it happens, most single decisions don’t result in major changes. They can, but they usually don’t. Even if the single decision brings disaster, there’s usually time and opportunity to rectify the decision and minimize the harmful effects.

Our destiny is usually determined by many decisions over a long period of time. This is both good news and bad. The good news is that we can slowly alter our destiny with a pattern of wise decisions. Call them mid-course corrections if you like.

The bad news is that if we have a pattern of unwise decisions, that pattern will often seal our destiny. Sometimes a pattern of bad decisions will create a scenario that can’t be reversed. Like in the examples above.

Choosing not to choose is not a choice

Because our choices are so determinative, some opt for making as few choices as possible. A kind of passive strategy. But this strategy doesn’t really work. Simply because NOT MAKING A CHOICE IS TO MAKE A CHOICE.

We delude ourselves when we think that not making a choice is an option. It really isn’t. If you’re confronted with a decision, there will be consequences for not deciding as well as for deciding. As in my original examples:

• To “not decide” to marry or not is to decide to remain single.
• To “not decide” about pursuing further education is to decide not to pursue it.
• To “not decide” about relocating is to decide to stay where you are.
• To “not decide” about practicing good health habits is to decide against it.
• To “not decide” about being honest and speaking the truth is to decide to be dishonest and not speak the truth.
• To “not decide” to be reliable is to decide to be unreliable.
• To “not decide” to choose friends wisely is to choose friends unwisely.

There’s just no escaping choices. We will need to make choices our entire lifetime. We either make wise ones or unwise ones. Not making choices is not an option open to us. To not choose at all is to simply choose one of the options—like it or not.

Some lessons to take away

So what do we take away from the Markham quotation? 4 things:

1. Choices determine almost everything else. So learn to make wise choices.

2. Most of our destiny is determined by our pattern of choices. So choose wisely.

3. Some of our destiny can be reversed with wise choices.

4. Some of our destiny is sealed by our past unwise choices.

Choices really are the hinges of destiny.

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