Um's Musings

What if...

Alright, as was commented, Pixy Misa did fix everything. So here we go...

I went round to a friends house last night and watched a movie. It was Timecop 2. I don't know if any of you have seen it. But I found it to be the most infuriating movie. There were so many inconsistencies, and loopholes in what they were doing. Yeah it's possible that I just think too much, but I know that others watching found it annoying as well. So when I got home I was in one of those contemplative 'mind going a 100 thoughts a second' moods. Here's what I wrote...

"Who am I? Who could I have been if I had made different choices? Who might I become with the choices I have before me?

Questions that will either never yield an answer, or will be revealed in time to come.

Everything we do has a consequence. One of the primary laws of physics is: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is not just true of the physical world, but also of our own lives.

The line from The Gladiator that has stuck with me is, 'What we do echoes in eternity...' I don't think that the writers of that movie realise just how right they are. Every thing we do on this earth has an echo a ripple that spreads out in ever widening circles.

If I were to change a small thing in my past, then it might affect a big thing in my future. All the things that have filled our past will shape our future. Without any of them we are not and could not be who we are at present.

By changing 'this' or 'that', we remove from our future the opportunity to learn from the thing we removed. By changing a path, we affect the destination arrived at.

What would happen if you were to change something about how you look? Better looking? Smaller nose? Different shaped ears? Taller? Thinner? Fatter? Any of those things would change who we have become. Ask to have been better looking... you become arrogant about those looks, that changes your entire persona. Smaller nose, not so self conscious, perhaps more outgoing, parties, drinking, 'socialising', and all the places that can lead. Of course those are the worser case scenarios of how you could turn out given the chance to change those things. But that should be enough to give you pause about just how feasible or smart it would be to change yourself.

See... anything and everything about who we are and what we've done will impact who we become. Yes there are some things that could and probably would make a positive change in your life. But there are also far too many variables and possibilities in any of those scenarios to make it a worthwhile risk.

Does this mean we should just be happy with who we are? Accept what happens with a 'calm dignity' or in the mode of a 'resigned fatalist'? No, I don't think it is. Seeking to change yourself is a good and respectable goal. But to wish for things to have been different in your past, to spend your life in the what if's of the past, is a futile and dangerous way to live your life.

Hope for change! But do this only in the future with which you can make your choices. Not in the unchangeable past where all your wishing and wanting will forever remain impossibilities."

Posted by Murray at March 29, 2004 08:52 PM