Circles and Lines

Is life a circle? Or is it a line? Does it matter? Why even think about it? Just recently I ran across some memes that had me wondering about the mindset they presuppose and the overall tone, be it positive, negative or somewhat neutral. They started me thinking about Body’s Cycle – the humane decision making cycle taught to many (if not all) combatants. The cycle is a four step repeating process wherein your observe your surroundings, orient yourself to the situation, make a decision and then act upon that decision. Your action causes a change so you have to start over with observing the change and so on. These cycles are often referred to as “OODA Loops” (said “u-dah loop”). They are circular and repeating. They are also usually applied only to compressed time frames such as competitions and conflict where your actions have to happen fast… fast enough to get ahead of your opponent’s OODA Loops and emerge victories.  Can the same thing be said on a grander scale about life? One meme I saw this morning referred to children who are abused or experience severe trauma early in life and how those experiences can “put them in survival mode.” As a survivor of child abuse I can assure you that there are certainly some emotional barriers that get put up to protect from the emotional impact of such abuse. There is some measure of “survival mode” that goes into effect if one can understand the long term benefit of not allowing the childhood trauma to impact your entire life. My question is, and I’ll come back to it, does going into that survival mode mean you never come back out of it? Another meme I saw focused on… – – – – – – – – – The remainder of this essay can be found in the book “Farther Down The Road” Farther Down the Road – Where does your life’s road lead? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTJ1B2QR