day no. 16,025: whatever you like?

"I could if I liked."

"You mean you could if you chose."

"Where's the difference?'"

"All the difference in the world."

-- C.S. Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress

The initial statement assumes an ability to do whatever we like, that we can do that which pleases us and that it's only our lack of like that keeps us from doing anything. But there are things we like that we cannot do and there are things we like that we do not do. We don't do everything we like; sometimes because we can't and other times because we shouldn't.

What you chose to do may not be what you like. It may not be driven by desire, but by duty. The intersections of desire, duty, and decision involve standards outside of any one of them in isolation. To determine what is best, you must consider more than mere desire or sheer duty.

We cannot do all we desire.

We do not do all our duties. 

What we shirk and what we seek must be determined by a standard outside of what our desires or duties would dictate.