If YOU Could Go Back In Time In Your Life...

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mymaria

Sower of discord
Nov 4, 2016
643
1,027
Okay, in my scenario, I usually tell the folks they can go back to ONE spot in the track of their lives, change one thing, but then they have to live it forward from there.

Maybe I'm dense, but not sure I get it. If you can go back and live your life forward from that time, you would have the opportunity to change a lot more than one thing, unless the first thing you changed was so transformative that nothing at all would be like your previous life. Or is your prior memory wiped clean?

If the latter, I'd say no. Wouldn't really want a do over without knowing what I know now.
 

Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
11,749
34,805
This post intrigued me. A letter on a shelf? Care to share more? Or maybe you don't want to. I understand.

I carried that secret for at least seventeen years and it was only time and distance...and a garage we built up on Tamarack Hill, that and the route we'd take to get there, the turn of the head as we passed...every day...and another letter or two asking why. Ma used to say I'm going to bring you to a psychiatrist to find out just what in the hell makes you tick! Heh! Cue the cartoon doctor, that little piece of metal strapped to his forehead. There's a stack of paper over by the other computer, waiting...been there for years and I keep telling myself there'll be time. Maybe this winter, looks good anyway, the extended forecast but there's a message on the machine, sounds like the Coast Guard is interested in windows and one thing leads to another and next thing you know it's time to turn the garden. But yeah, when I was seventeen I ran like hell. Been doing it ever since. Padgett Powell asked the class to write a story on one page, so I did, and that generated more. Powell and the class seemed to like the story.

You're a lovely writer, Walter. I really mean that.
thank you...I'm good for another ten years! :D

Isn't he? I tried to tell him not too long ago. I think it's even more striking because he doesn't seem to realize it. He has a way with words usually reserved for visionaries and poets.
and there's the bat-**** crazy, too! :D
 

HollyGolightly

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
9,660
74,320
54
Heart of the South
Walt that was beautiful and intriguing.

I don't know about going back. I'd love to go back with my knowledge now and be more generous with my love for the people I've lost. I have a moment like Walt. A dome shaped cabin at the river's edge. A life derailed in one moment. But if not for that, would I have my husband and children? My faith? All that came after? If not, then no. I wouldn't change a thing. Maybe what happened to me saved someone else.
 

80sFan

Just one more chapter...
Jul 14, 2015
2,997
16,167
Pennsylvania
nope nope. There have been a lot of total crap things in my life, but many great things arose from those times as well. Trying to change the past never works (we've all read the books and seen the movies--lol) because one change spawns others that aren't so desirable. Better to take the lesson offered and move on :)

I have to agree with skimom.
I have had (and currently am going through) some difficulties in my life.
I have to think a different path wouldn't necessarily be less difficult, but maybe just different obstacles.
I had two long term relationships (and quite a few short term ones) before my hubby and I became a couple and I sometimes imagine that this life is my redo...I know how odd that sounds.
But maybe the first (and second?) time around I married a previous guy and that decision turned out so bad that I did a redo and ended up with the right partner.
I do have many regrets, but even when things get rough, I don't regret my choice of spouse.
 

DiO'Bolic

Not completely obtuse
Nov 14, 2013
22,864
129,998
Poconos, PA
Many of my original crew from back in high school left us very young. There’s only 4 of us left. I would go back and tell Warren life is not as terrible as you think it is. I’d tell Jimmy to stick with me and not get in that car. I’d tell Michael the hell with waiting for the transfer and get out of the bomb squad, NOW! I would tell Brian no girl is worth it. I would tell Snidely 120 mph is not cool. And I would tell Tom to get to a surgeon right away as that fall caused a brain aneurysm.

(Funny thing is I was voted in my senior year as the person most likely to die by the age of 21 (It was a strange time in a strange school)... and I’m still around and kicking.)
 

do1you9love?

Happy to be here!
Feb 18, 2012
9,284
70,566
Virginia
nope nope. There have been a lot of total crap things in my life, but many great things arose from those times as well. Trying to change the past never works (we've all read the books and seen the movies--lol) because one change spawns others that aren't so desirable. Better to take the lesson offered and move on :)

Walt that was beautiful and intriguing.

I don't know about going back. I'd love to go back with my knowledge now and be more generous with my love for the people I've lost. I have a moment like Walt. A dome shaped cabin at the river's edge. A life derailed in one moment. But if not for that, would I have my husband and children? My faith? All that came after? If not, then no. I wouldn't change a thing. Maybe what happened to me saved someone else.

I'm with these ladies!

Nope. Life is hard, lots of the time, but I fully believe that everything we experience is what makes us who we are, and I quite like who I am. And I would not take even the smallest chance that I would not have met my wonderful hubby and my daughter, who is the light of our lives, would never exist. But I love the question! Thanks!
 

do1you9love?

Happy to be here!
Feb 18, 2012
9,284
70,566
Virginia
I have to agree with skimom.
I have had (and currently am going through) some difficulties in my life.
I have to think a different path wouldn't necessarily be less difficult, but maybe just different obstacles.
I had two long term relationships (and quite a few short term ones) before my hubby and I became a couple and I sometimes imagine that this life is my redo...I know how odd that sounds.
But maybe the first (and second?) time around I married a previous guy and that decision turned out so bad that I did a redo and ended up with the right partner.
I do have many regrets, but even when things get rough, I don't regret my choice of spouse.

I think that sounds wonderful! ((80sFan))
 

BrokenolMarine

Well-Known Member
Dec 13, 2016
128
587
65
Maybe I'm dense, but not sure I get it. If you can go back and live your life forward from that time, you would have the opportunity to change a lot more than one thing, unless the first thing you changed was so transformative that nothing at all would be like your previous life. Or is your prior memory wiped clean?

If the latter, I'd say no. Wouldn't really want a do over without knowing what I know now.

The rule about going back to change only one thing, means you only get to target one thing... one minute in your life. You then work forward from there but you still remember what was before.

The rule prohibits time jumping... no going back to tenth grade and not going to that Sadie Hawkins dance with that loser, then jumping to college and not sleeping with you know who. Then jumping to your late twenties and saying yes to the job offer you later realized would have been your dream.

One jump, and no do overs if it doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped.
That is the gamble.

It could turn out your new path is short and painful.
 

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
I carried that secret for at least seventeen years and it was only time and distance...and a garage we built up on Tamarack Hill, that and the route we'd take to get there, the turn of the head as we passed...every day...and another letter or two asking why. Ma used to say I'm going to bring you to a psychiatrist to find out just what in the hell makes you tick! Heh! Cue the cartoon doctor, that little piece of metal strapped to his forehead. There's a stack of paper over by the other computer, waiting...been there for years and I keep telling myself there'll be time. Maybe this winter, looks good anyway, the extended forecast but there's a message on the machine, sounds like the Coast Guard is interested in windows and one thing leads to another and next thing you know it's time to turn the garden. But yeah, when I was seventeen I ran like hell. Been doing it ever since. Padgett Powell asked the class to write a story on one page, so I did, and that generated more. Powell and the class seemed to like the story.


thank you...I'm good for another ten years! :D


and there's the bat-**** crazy, too! :D
My hat is off to you if you got Powell's endorsement. Padgett Powell is a great writer. I'm sure his class was illuminating.
 

cat in a bag

Well-Known Member
Aug 28, 2010
12,038
67,827
wyoming
I am at that point in my life where I really wish I had finished college. I was valedictorian of my high school class. I was supposed to DO things, BE someone.

I don't know if I would go back in time though, because I do love my life. I love being a stay at home mom and being there whenever needed for my husband and my kids. And now my grandkids. But my kids are growing up. Sometimes I do wish there was some sort of personal achievement I could point to and say, I did that.

But I don't think I would have my husband or my family if I went back. Too many different paths would be taken. So I will stick to now, I do believe. :)
 

Robert Gray

Well-Known Member
Of course I would. There isn't one of us, in my opinion, if faced with the real power to do so (rather than speculation) that would be able to resist. Since I largely like my life now, I wouldn't go too far back. I wouldn't want to risk not meeting my wife, being in Bangor, or many of the countless other things I cherish. I wouldn't trade them to avoid any past pain or failure. But I would go back at least a year and clean a few things up and make arrangements that would impact my immediate future.

And that is the rub... if I (who is largely happy with his life) wouldn't be able to resist making some changes, I know that someone unhappy isn't going to be able to resist the vacation in the Twilight Zone. Bear in mind that I'm talking about changes for purely selfish reasons at this point. That is because I can't fathom the notion of playing God and attempting to change a Watershed Moment. I'm not saying this for moral reasons, but rather from the perspective that I wouldn't want to have to look in the mirror and own the inevitable consequences. I don't envy God. It seems like a really awful job from the cheap seats we occupy. In my view, I'd rather go back shallow, make changes which selfishly serve my own needs and power without altering myself, my loved ones, or my life... so that I can go forward and help others (as well as me and my own) going forward.

So would I do a little Marty McFly and make sure I won big at a Lottery? You betcha. Would I perhaps intervene in the recent events affecting people I have met hereabouts? You betcha. Would I try to change the world, perhaps unravel this horrible recent election? Nope. I see it in simple terms. If I had the power to alter events, I have the responsibility to do it. It doesn't happen by accident, or as King might put it: "All things serve the beam." I would just be more circumspect about how I try to use it. I'm not God so the miracles I work have to be on my scale.
 

fushingfeef

Finally Uber!
Aug 14, 2009
10,194
21,965
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I would like the ability to speed through the bad and stretch out the good. But sadly it's the painful moments that seem to last the longest, and the joyful moments are most fleeting. And then there's just a lot of going through the motions, the daily routines, prosaic and ordinary stuff. That can be the glue that holds our lives together, but so often it is the biggest thief of time.
 

Tery

Say hello to my fishy buddy
Moderator
Apr 12, 2006
15,304
44,712
Bremerton, Washington, United States
I like what Robert Gray wrote. He has put it very well, how I feel about the bigger picture. But I would really like to go back to when I "broke up" with a roommate and left the guitar we'd jointly bought -- with a loan from my credit union. I would take that Gibson Les Paul Custom 50th Anniversary Special Edition. Damn skippy I would.
 

thekidd12

Baseball is a good thing.Always was,always will be
Apr 8, 2016
1,791
11,136
60
NC
Well trolling this board hoping for an answer on another thread, saw this topic and like so many other people on the internet now just had to read everyone's response. For better or worse here are my 2 cents.

After trying to watch the tv show Frequency this year. I am not sure what messing with the past would do the time line I am on right now. Going too far back and knocking a butterfly around might cause me to have one less child or marry someone else?

I would however go back to one day just a couple of years ago. Not to try and change something, although if faced with the possibility not sure I could help myself.

I would go to back to the day my father passed away. On the phone with him, last person to talk to him.

Instead of telling him I would see him tomorrow I would tell him how much I loved him.

I do it every year now on the anniversary of his passing to the voicemail recording I saved from him.

It ain't the same.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
Well trolling this board hoping for an answer on another thread, saw this topic and like so many other people on the internet now just had to read everyone's response. For better or worse here are my 2 cents.

After trying to watch the tv show Frequency this year. I am not sure what messing with the past would do the time line I am on right now. Going too far back and knocking a butterfly around might cause me to have one less child or marry someone else?

I would however go back to one day just a couple of years ago. Not to try and change something, although if faced with the possibility not sure I could help myself.

I would go to back to the day my father passed away. On the phone with him, last person to talk to him.

Instead of telling him I would see him tomorrow I would tell him how much I loved him.

I do it every year now on the anniversary of his passing to the voicemail recording I saved from him.

It ain't the same.
Been watching this show on Netflix... liking it a lot! (lovely post btw)
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
I am at that point in my life where I really wish I had finished college. I was valedictorian of my high school class. I was supposed to DO things, BE someone.

I don't know if I would go back in time though, because I do love my life. I love being a stay at home mom and being there whenever needed for my husband and my kids. And now my grandkids. But my kids are growing up. Sometimes I do wish there was some sort of personal achievement I could point to and say, I did that.

But I don't think I would have my husband or my family if I went back. Too many different paths would be taken. So I will stick to now, I do believe. :)
You have good kids who can stand strong. You have a relationship that's lasted for years. You are a good, bright, loving, capable person. Those are accomplishments that last. Those things mean something in the bigger picture. The rest is just ephemera. Stuff. (((hugs)))
 

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
Well trolling this board hoping for an answer on another thread, saw this topic and like so many other people on the internet now just had to read everyone's response. For better or worse here are my 2 cents.

After trying to watch the tv show Frequency this year. I am not sure what messing with the past would do the time line I am on right now. Going too far back and knocking a butterfly around might cause me to have one less child or marry someone else?

I would however go back to one day just a couple of years ago. Not to try and change something, although if faced with the possibility not sure I could help myself.

I would go to back to the day my father passed away. On the phone with him, last person to talk to him.

Instead of telling him I would see him tomorrow I would tell him how much I loved him.


I do it every year now on the anniversary of his passing to the voicemail recording I saved from him.

It ain't the same.
At the very least, I hope this has positively informed your life in the present. Great post.