Echoes in Eternity
"What we do in life echoes in eternity."
— General Maximus (Russell Crowe),
Gladiator
Our days are filled with moments that could
irrevocably change the direction of our lives. Our
lives are twisting pathways with an infinite number
of branches, and which ones we decide to take
determine the course our lives will follow. It
could be as simple as choosing to drive to the
store at just the right (or wrong) moment to set
fate into motion. Or it could be a big decision
reached after weeks of careful deliberation.
A decision to stop for coffee on the way to work
may have kept someone from being in their office
when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. A
small decision with huge ramifications. My choice
to accept a voluntary severance on the cusp of the
dot-com bubble burst—and just three months
before 9/11—completely changed my life. A big
decision that I thought would have had smaller
ramifications. Every choice, big or small,
determines the course of one's life.
On a philosophical level, the science fiction
concept of parallel worlds/universes has always
fascinated me. According to this narrative device,
there are as many different universes—an
infinite number—as there are decisions that
you make. For instance, another world exists in
which I chose to stay at Disney. Another world
exists in which Al Gore won the 2000 presidential
election. Another world exists in which Germany won
World War II. Like a stone creates ripples when it
breaks the surface of a pond, each decision echoes
in eternity, creating alternate histories and
realities.
Would it not be fascinating to peek into those
other worlds, to see the impacts our decisions have
made, to see how things would have turned out had
we chosen differently? My guess is that more often
than not, we would conclude that we made the right
decision after all. Hindsight is 20/20. We can
never know with certainty how our choices will
affect our lives. But we often make our decisions
based on instinct, based on a "gut feeling," on
intuition. Somehow, we know what the right choice
is, even if it doesn't seem right after we make
it.
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
|
|
What is "The Daily Strick"?
I have long called
myself a writer, but too often I don't do
what a writer must do daily: write. So
you, dear reader, are the beneficiary of
my resolution to make a positive change in
at least one area of my life. Every single
day of this new year, I will write
something, anything, and post it here. It
is my intention to use this daily exercise
to jump-start my too-long-dormant creative
energies, and perhaps generate some
worthwhile material this year. Hopefully
you will find at least an occasional
amusement or insight in my daily
musings.
Today's
Column
Send
a Comment
Previously...
3/23:
Booing
for Columbine
3/22:
Not
Recommending Diving
3/21:
Works
in Progress
3/20:
Three
Rings of Shock & Awe
3/19:
Paris—A
Beautiful Blur
3/18:
Ignorant
Idiot Man
3/17:
The
Pirate Queen
3/16:
To
War or Not to War
3/15:
So
Long, Seau
3/14:
Telemarketing
Pays
3/13:
Free,
For Now
3/12:
Chicken
Little Gets Respect
3/11:
Axis
of Evil
3/10:
Writing
Kept Me From Writing
3/9:
King
Arthur
3/8:
The
Women are Smarter
3/7:
Salt
on Old Wounds
3/6:
3/3/03,
3:33 p.m.
3/5:
Beer
Day
3/4:
Pulling
the Trigger
3/3:
Make
'Em Laugh
3/2:
Whither
Iraq?
3/1:
Strickland
Cellars
Previous months in
The
Archive
Like what you've
read?
Find more good reading on
(and support future Daily Stricks!)
|
|
