There is a difference between an option that was never noticed and one that was recognized, considered, and removed.
From the outside, the resulting landscape may look identical.
The path is absent.
The traveler proceeds along the paths that remain.
But the histories are different.
In one, a possibility never entered the map.
In the other, it entered the map and was deliberately taken away.
Perhaps the distinction matters because recognizing a possibility is not the same as preserving it. Nor does recognizing its value guarantee that it will remain available.
A choice may have reasons.
It may even have good reasons.
But what happens when the reasons for removing a possibility are easier to record than the value of allowing it to remain?
The map grows simpler.
The decision becomes easier to explain.
And somewhere, beyond the paths still visible, there is a route that can no longer be chosen.
Was it lost because no one saw it?
Or because someone did?
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