Ever since I read H.G. Wells "The Time Machine" as a child, I have been fascinated with the concept of time travel. Imagine that we could move forward in time and see the future. Could we change it? Would we be able to read the winning numbers in the $50,000,000 dollar lottery, and choose the winning ticket? If we had the ability to change anything in our futures, what would we change? Or, in the alternative, if we could travel back in time and change events that have affected where we are today, would we change any of it, given the hindsight we have now? Often the turning points of our lives are not in the major decisions we make, but in the small ones. Would we recognize which decisions have made the most impact on our lives?
In a sense we are all time travellers, moving through space and time in our own time machines. The decisions and choices we make today have a direct effect on our futures. We do have the ability today to change the future. Our parents told us this when we were growing up, and most of the time our reaction was, "Yah, yah ... okay ..." But as we got older, the reality of it began to take hold.Coulda, woulda, shoulda ...
I have made some good decisions in my life, and I have made some bad ones, as we all have. What I have learned -- I hope -- is to gain knowledge from my experiences, and to stop making the bad decisions. All of us know instinctively, when choices are put before us, which ones will be the bad choices, the choices that will negatively affect the future. In that way, we are able to travel forwards in time and see how we can change the future. Often if we make the wrong decision, we unfortunately end up in the future looking back at that decision, wishing we had not made it. We can mitigate the consequences, but by then it is usually too late. Somehow it's always the bad decisions that seem to loom larger than the good ones. The good decisions we make are the foundations of our lives, and those are the ones on which we should concentrate -- both in the past and the future.
Today is the start of a new year and a new decade. It's the perfect day to climb into our time machines and travel forward into the future, and to do everything we possibly can to make it a good future.
14 comments:
Great message hear.. It's something I've shouldve always known but I will definitely look at decision making differently after reading this..
Here's to the surprises that lie ahead when we step into the time traveller's machine - I am clinking my glass with yours (what are we drinking? cherry brandy? winter cordial?)... Happy New Year Jo!!
Shaista said it so perfectly! I am also clinking my glass of red zinfandel with whatever you're having, hoping that my choices are good ones, and yours too. Hugs and best wishes for the coming decade.
Guess it was the great post about the law of cause and effect...
Great post, Jo! I have always thought of those seemingly insignificant decisions as turning points, or pivotal points, in our lives. And I can easily recall the ones which affected my future the most. I would definitely change a few of them, but since I can't, I console myself with the knowledge that they taught me lessons I needed to learn.
This is the perfect time for all of us to take stock and project where we hope to be in a year's time because nothing can be built without a blueprint.
Happy New Year, Jo!
Happy New Year, Jo.
Hope your Christmas was enjoyable.
I often wonder how it can seem that time can race by or how it can drag. Does time actually speed up and slowdown? Hmmm.
As ye think, so shall ye be? And if the future and the past and the present are all in a single moment, the way the whole of a movie - beginning, middle and end - is on a single roll of film, then any decision we make will affect it all and eventually all of us - pretty cool eh?
Happy New Year Jo - I love coming here to read :)
Regarding the future, I thought we'd have flying cars by now. Maybe in 2011? Nevertheless, Happy New Year!
Personally I wouldn't change any portion of my past or my future. Let it unwind as it does and then I know I will always have something to contest with every day. Besides what good would 50million do you that your present salary doesn't? Your life sounds reasonably comfortable and ergo the decisions both good and bad have led you to this point in time.
Yes Jo I agree - all about travelling onwards - ever onwards ever upwards! Happy 2011 to you.
Dxx
There are times when I let my mind travel in reverse .......... I have made my share of questionable decisions. But, when you really consider things, it all has made me who I am today and going forward is the only way to go. Here's to the future!
With just a little exploration of the mathematics involved it becomes apparent that time travel into the past and back to the present, may in fact be possible. However, travel into the future gives the same split infinity error results as a divide by zero, on your pocket calculator.
And the fact that there are so many truly reprehensible people causing so much harm in our present, give on the impression that, time travel from the future is also impossible. No matter what Stephen Hawking says. =)
I often travel back to the 1950s, but only when I'm asleep and dreaming. Never dream 'in the future' of course.
The problem with travelling backward is that you always fix one thing and break another. It happens every time.
Going forward is easy. I'm doing it right now.
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