Imagine waking up in a world that is different then the one you went to sleep in. Not in huge ways, but in little ways. The bed sheets are different, the curtains are blue when you remember them being green the night before. You go to work, only to discover that your department is in another building then the one you had always gone to and that you are the manager, whereas yesterday you had just been a part of the staff. You go home sick and confused because you know something isn't right, and waiting for you is a spouse that you don't remember having, yet she is the sweetheart that you had in high school. Sounds kind of freaky doesn't it? How about getting off of a plane in a country that you have visited many times only to be told that your passport is no good because the country it's from doesn't exist and as far as they know, never existed. Yet, you know it's real, you can see it in your mind, you have money in your wallet from that nation and even your driver's license says that you are, yet no one has ever heard of the place.
What would you do if you found yourself in that situation? The people I read about, and there were more then just the two, are understandably upset. People are telling them that they are crazy and confused. Yet, in all these cases the people who are experiencing this will insist that this is really happening to them, that they have some how shifted into an alternate or parallel universe.
I read these two stories from an alternative news sight that has everything from normal news, if there is such a thing anymore, to out right weird and all points in between. I don't claim that these stories are true (I did change some of the details and left out names though I stayed true to the intent) but the idea "Intersecting Alternate Realities" really fascinates me.
The basic concept, very simply put, suggests that every decision that we make or don't make happens in an alternate universe, and because we have so many decisions that we make every day that the alternates realities just go on and on. It is also suggested that from time to time some of these alternates intersect with each other causing these anomalies to happen and people get moved from one to the other, not everyone mind you, but just people in the right place and time. Now, before you dismiss this as just being totally insane, understand that Quantum Physics says that all this is mathematically possible.
Now to the point. I wonder to myself how many of us go through our lives wishing that we were living in an alternate reality. We spend a lot of time looking backwards and regretting decisions that we made many years ago and then pondering what life might have been like if we had decided differently. I can use my self as an example. What would have happened if I had gone to college instead of going into the military? Or a trade school?
First off, I wouldn't have been in the Iraq war dealing with consequences both physically and mentally but then I likely would not have married my wife either. She was 5 years behind me in school and while we were all a part of the same religious persuasion, and we would have likely have gone to the same college, because I was so far ahead of her I would have likely gotten together with someone else and our paths might have crossed but not in the same way. By joining the military when I did, it set the stage for us to meet via mutual friends and here we are now with 22 years of being together, 21 of them married and the 5 years of difference doesn't matter.
Here is another thought; you might be where you are because G-D knows that you can handle it. I was complaining one day about my physical condition to a Rabbi friend and he suggested to me that I was in this position because G-D knows that I can handle it and make some good come from it. That blew me away. Take something that is painful and down right humbling at times and use it for good? I had never even considered that thought before. So it could be said for all of us, perhaps rather then wishing we were elsewhere in time and place we could look and decide for our self to make this time and place a little better.
Then think about what would happen if you weren't here or had never been. Most of us go through our lives never really knowing how much we affect others around us, that's partially because we don't generally let others know how much we appreciate them until we are at their funerals, but I also think it's because life comes at us so fast that we simply miss the influence we have. In the movie "Its A Wonderful Life" George Bailey gets a chance to see just how much his life has impacted others after he declares that it would have been better if he hadn't been born. Every thing from his brother drowning, thus causing a bunch of soldiers to die on a troop transport years later, to his wife becoming a old maid, and his home town becoming a bad place to be was shown to him, and it all happened because he hadn't been born. He returns to this life in no less trouble but he sees his life from a much different perspective.
None of us are likely to be as lucky as he was and get the chance to see what it would be like without us, so it is up to us to live the life that G-D has given us to the fullest. The formula is for it is actually quite easy. Love G-D and Love people. You do those two things and you probably won't want to be elsewhere in time or space.
The people that I mentioned in the beginning, according to the story, are not very happy campers. If it is true that they have been removed from their time and space it is also just as understandable that they wish to go back, so be careful what you wish for or you may wake up one day wondering who changed the curtains.....
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