The Question of Coffee

Maybe free will is a relative concept. At least for me, I know that I make 'choices' in my mind. To have coffee or not to have coffee is a question, and when I get coffee a decision is made, at least based in relation to that question. Now in some larger sense, maybe there was no question of whether or not I would get coffee. First of all, that larger sense needs to have a framework too. Maybe it's "God" that knows whether I would get coffee, or maybe there's some set of equations that determine that. But the fact remains, that at least as far as my awareness goes, whether I get coffee or not was not initially determined.

If I didn't have the ability to question, or wonder about my future options, then I might not have any idea about choice, I would just do or not do whatever I was, or was not, going to do. But I do have that ability to question and since I don't know the future, when I act (or don't act), I am sometimes aware of the possibility that things could have gone a different way. And since I have a notion of identity and willing within this context I attribute those actions within the context of my identity, as they are my actions. 'Willing' in the sense that there seems to be a connection with me and what I do. It is not like my perceptions are the same as those I would be viewing on a very high quality television set. I get tired when I move, and I don't move because I don't want to get more tired, and the like. Hence, I 'choose' to do this or that. That doesn't mean that if the future is in some larger sense determined that my questions and choices don't have relevance from the standpoint of my concept of myself since I am not all knowing, especially as pertains to the future and  limited and uncertain knowledge of things in the past and present, and I have a concept of acting (or not acting) based on this limited knowledge. It doesn't mean that in a higher sense such actions are not determined, only that I don't know about that.

I decided to make coffee this morning, at least in part because I had a coffee machine, coffee, a mug, sugar, half n' half, a spoon, a place to drink it, time to drink it, and Bounty paper towels. The toweling is of the full size sheet kind, so it's not prone to rip apart when I use it as a coffee filter. I also have electricity, and water, and facilities to clean the previously used coffee machine (sink, soap, a brush...). Oh, and I like coffee, especially when I first get up. But it wasn't easy...