Choose Your Own Adventure

Several years ago Bantam published a series of books entitled Choose Your Own Adventure. During my years in the book business I sold a lot of them. Here's how Wikipedia explains the concept:

"Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's gamebooks. Each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions in response to the plot and its outcome.

After an introduction to the story, the reader is asked to determine the protagonist's next course of action. After the reader makes a choice, the plot branches out and unfolds, leading to more decisions and eventually multiple possible endings.

The types of endings that the books featured include:
- At least one, but often several, endings depicting a highly desired resolution, often involving uncovering a handsome monetary reward.
- Endings that result in the death of the protagonist, companions of the main character or both, or other very negative ending, because of a fatal choice of the reader.
- Other endings that may be either satisfactory (but not the most desired ending) or unsatisfactory (but not totally bad).
- Occasionally a particular set of choices will throw the reader into a loop where they repeatedly reach the same page (often with a reference to the situation being familiar). At this point the reader's only option is to restart the adventure.

As the series progressed, the length of the plot threads increased, therefore, the number of endings decreased. The earliest books in the series often contained nearly 40 possible endings, while later entries contained as few as eight."

It sounds a lot like life, doesn't it? As an avid reader, the concept behind the Choose Your Own Adventure series always fascinated me. When the consequences of your choices are only 50 or 75 pages away, you tend to take them seriously - even the ones that seem fairly insignificant.

My children lost their father on October 5 after a 2 1/2 year battle with cancer. It's been a challenging time for them. My daughter (15 years old) is having a particularly difficult time. She wonders why. It's a hard time in life to lose a parent.

In the Choose Your Own Adventure books, there are many things that happen as the plot unfolds. Maybe an alien attacks your spaceship, or bandits come after your wagon train. Things that you may prefer did not happen. But when they do happen, the choices you make are critical. Are you brave or fearful? Do you fight or run. In real life some of those same choices are open to us. Others too. Do you allow doubt or bitterness to overtake you? When the end of the story is not only 50 or so pages away, it's tempting to think that the choices we make in response to things like a death don't matter as much.

They do. Our choices affect the outcome. Even little choices send ripples throughout the rest of our lives changing the options offered later in the story. Choose wisely.