Parallel Worlds

[poliphilo]

If it's truly the case that every time we make a major life decision we generate a parallel universe in which the alternative choice is explored then there's going to be a reality (as real/unreal as this is) in which I'm still a clergyman and presently contemplating retirement.

Is that other self as satisfied with his mid-life decision as I am? Has he made a success of the career I abandoned? Is he married or single? Is he still grinding away at parish life or has he- as I thought of doing- moved into academe? Does he have an LJ?

Comments

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

The story that I like is that my past still exists somewhere. If I returned to the old apartment, there would be the past me, going to to the past job, and I could tell them what to do instead. It's a good story, and entertaining on long drives.

If all decisions generate alternate universes, then your life is being fragmented and rebuilt all the time, regardless of which choice you make- what another lifeform in a distant galaxy does is just as likely to spawn a split. What an uninhabited planet, orphaned and whirling through the void between systems, does can as well. I assume reality is like water, flowing into every available crack and space, and every possibility that can be reached is an occupied position.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like your final image. Time like water.