so often, when people discuss and debate free will, i hear it referenced as a binary, black and white. we either have free will or we don’t, are we slave to instinct or not, are we trapped in a deterministic universe or not.

personally, i wonder if free will exists on a binary at all. maybe it isn’t black and white. maybe we can claim more free will for ourselves through self-awareness and self-work. maybe free will exists on a spectrum, maybe we can gather more free will through rising above instinct and impulse, illuminating our minds and hearts to better gather the ability to choose. maybe this has to do with willing evolution.

maybe part of what can be beautiful about being a human is the evolutionary path not merely being an accident of nature, or an unconscious, sleep-walking process of accidental betterment over many eons, but about the process of participating in our evolution. we can choose to blossom and become better. does a tree choose to grow and reach towards the sun, or does it just happen? i don’t know — but i know that we, ourselves, can willingly choose to grow, to reach sunwards.