Stories are designed to present characters with a series of progressive complications that build tension towards a dramatic choice.
We missed so many opportunities, it’s too probably late, how could we be so stupid? If only we had paid attention, this last choice might just be our last one! You get the point.
The tension builds in our imagination. A series of progressive complications. Steps missed or messed up. Until we arrive at what feels like the final destination. Make the wrong choice and it will end in disaster.
In The Matrix, the main character Neo is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill by rebel leader Morpheus. Morpheus says “You take the blue pill… the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill… you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
The willingness to learn a potential life-changing truth, with all the difficulties that it may bring, is to give yourself potential. Choose the red pill if you can be curious about the outcome but not defined by it.
The anti-heroic, blue pill is a choice for those worried about the outcome and the uncertainty that it brings. Without meaning, is without blame or failure, a vacuous space, of contented ignorance devoid of possibility. “What’s the point?”
And my point? The stakes are rarely as high as your imagination would have you think.