Choices we make...............................

Every time I watch Fredrick Forsyths classic 'The Day of the Jackal' there is a nuance of life that I see, afresh.
To fill you in, the story is about, France in the 1960's, having about lost its last colony in Africa ( Algeria ). The architect of this surrender is their president and WW 2 hero General Charles De Gaulle. A miffed group of army personnel feeling betrayed decide to bump off the president and so hire the 'Jackal' a shadowy Englishman to do the job. Now begins the cat & mouse game, between the French police & Jackal.
The defining moment for me in this superb thriller, is the point where the Jackal gets to hear that the police are on his trail and as per the terms of his contract can ditch the assignment. As he waits, in his 'Alfa Romeo', at a fork in the road one taking him to Paris and the other on to Italy, he you can see his mind ruminating over the choice that he is to make. Flee to safety in Italy or press on to Paris? Take up the challenge and kill De Gaulle or choose safety and admit failure?
The Jackal, chooses the challenge, drives on to Paris, fails to kill De Gaulle and is shot, to be buried in an unmarked grave by the wayside..............Had he fled? Did his arrogance get in the way of his judgement?
He made a choice and paid the price. Fleeing to Italy would have been a different price to pay, maybe being caught at the border and jailed, for life.
Choices in life are killers, you pay a price, for every choice you make, one way or the other and ergo there are no absolutely rights or wrong choices. There is that element of grey in an inelegant world, which creates success and failure, opportunity and threat.

Like Charles De Gaulle would have said:

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.

What he did not say, was the price that you pay!