This month’s FallowLab conversation combines a conversation about Shmita, a look at how we choose and can choose better – and a celebration of fruits and trees, honoring the first human choice to pick a fruit and eat it – just in time for Tu Bishvat – the annual birthday of trees.

There are 75 different types of fruit jams in the supermarket across the street from my house.

That’s good, right? who doesn’t love choices?

Or is it?

Ever since that first moment of choosing to eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden, we humans have been blessed and cursed with the power of choice.

Abundance and free markets offer us the world on a dazzling platter; The humanist pursuit of free will governs our systems and offer us the freedom to be who we really want to be. The the digital age makes options even easier and even more diverse. Choose your own playlist.

I’m 100% Pro Choice – but aren’t we getting lost in too many choices?? Is there a price tag our souls and society pay for always choosing more, other, and not being satisfied with what there is? What can we each do to improve our art of choosing?

The music for this episode is Escape by BlueTech.