Would you live your life again?

[Ami]

Would you live your life again?

hell no!

[KnightoftheRose]

Heh, I'm 17 years old, just barely out of my childhood...ask me again in 10 years

[Quahom1]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

In The Twilight Zone: The Movie, the last story was about a group of old people in a home who are offered youth again. Almost all of them accept it – but one doesn't, on the grounds that she didn’t want to have to go through the experience of growing up again.

I also remembered that because it seemed a strange decision – at least, in my teens. Now I'm older I wonder which decision I'd actually take.

After all, on the one hand, it was be great to be able to return to our lives with the wisdom we have already acquired from it. But isn't that all part of growing up anyway?

But isn’t there also the danger of repeating past "mistakes", on the ground that the lessons learned no longer seemed so relevant in a second lifetime?

I'm sure even the younger among us have considered the advantages of rewinding life's clock - if only by a couple of years.

Anyway, what would you do if offered the chance?

Hmmm, Brian. What a conundrum you present, and what a group of altruistic people we have here (I'm very pleased to observe). If we ever develop the means of going back in linear time, all y'all should be the first cadre of "Time Cops", as an example for future time cops to emmulate.

I personally would not change the status quo, but I would go back to stop the status quo from being changed by other, less honorable, or more desperate people, using the technology.

If on the other hand, I found myself in my younger body, with the current knowledge I have, still intact, I would be the most potentially powerful and conversely the most vulnerable child on earth. Can you imagine trying to act like a child of 10, with the mind, future memories and experiences of a 45 year old, who has already lived the future? If you slipped up on what you already know, you might be institutionalized, hunted down, or confiscated for the "good of the state" (read that as being used for the wants of the powerful in positions of athority).

Even if you did nothing, but live as a 10 year old, your very behavior would modify events yet to be. Knowing what you know, you'd avoid turning right on such and such street instead of going straight, or stopping, in order to avoid being hit by a car and getting a leg broken that had happened in the past, and was about to happen again...unless you have a very strong will, that overrides self preservation. If you never got hit, then the driver never got caught for being drunk, that time, and never decided to change his ways, and now a new accident occurs with someone else at a later time, that should not have happened...and that "victim" dies, which means she doesn't become Governor of a state, and later the president, like she was supposed to.

If on the other hand you become a child of 10 with no memory of the fact that you are from the future, I think the complexities of the human mind and spirit would haunt you with "visions" of things you can't explain, but it would drive you crazy none the less. Your "insight" might be considered phenominal, or mirraculus, and again you might find yourself fighting for sanity and safety from a hungry, desperate world.

If you changed one little thing about your life, you would forever change the entire world. Of course no one else would know the differences, but you would. And your future/past would be altered as well.

I know for fact that If I was back in time, I would hold my tongue, or speak a kind word instead of a harsh one, and that would change everthing, and not necessarrily for the better (though I might believe so at the moment).

Then again, maybe my idea of better, is wrong.

A world with no borders, and a government body that is benign and benifical to its citizens...no nationalism, proud to be human, as opposed to being from this country or that. No need for guns except for hunting (which would work dillegently with groups for animal husbandry).

Or, the opposite. Fortress America (for example), Japan is gone, Russia is gone, China is in the fight of it's life, Bill of rights shredded, martial law prevails world wide. Common law a pipe dream, and dope pipes are as common as pocket combs.

Maybe because we can't go back, there is a balance (tenious at times), that is maintained in this existance. I would not want to go back and upset that balance, simply because I don't think I could handle (personally) the outcome.

Then, add other people going back in time to your own...oh my!

Now, going into the future might be cool, except for one small detail, we'd be meddling in some one else's past...like our children's, and their children...

I think the only way that would be acceptable for a person to time travel, would be to go forward...by way of cryogenics. Go to sleep young, wake up young, but be the oldest person on earth, with no concept of what has happened while you were "asleep". You'd be a great history buff, and could clear up fuzzy details from your era, but you would not screw up the time/space continuim.

Brian, I wouldn't want to revisit even yesterday. But I wouldn't mind going back within a twenty four hour period. But even that causes potential problems. What a "causal loop" that could invoke! Imagine 6,000,000,000 people going back within twenty four hours to "change things". And then keep going back, in order to get the outcome they want...

We'd never see tomorrow!

v/r

Q

[Quahom1]

Originally Posted by KnightoftheRose

Heh, I'm 17 years old, just barely out of my childhood...ask me again in 10 years

(Chuckle), you're still in childhood/adolecence until you are 30. I hope you take "time" to enjoy that precious moment. I know if I was your age, I would. But then, I'd screw up the time/space continuim...wouldn't I?

You don't have too, but then no one ever listens to their elders, until it's late.

v/r

Q

[KnightoftheRose]

Bah, adolescence is overrated...fights, peer pressure, drugs (ne'er did them - but they messed up the few close friends I had back in my early years of high school), fear, anger, depression, pointless competition, abusive adults (teachers, usually), abrasive teenagers, the wild hormonal developments (mood change in 3..2..1), all the misunderstandings (heh, I'm starting to sound like an angsty goth, hunh?), and all the time spent in tears and sorrow...why would I enjoy these "precious" moments? If I could go back in time, it wouldn't be to "enjoy" my youth...it would be to correct all the bad times - and damn the time/space continuum!

[alexa]

High school again, no way ! I was too eager to finish it the first time !

On the other hand, if I could go back, I'd choose another University, no matter my parents "guidence"

[I, Brian]

My eldest daughter does gymnastics near a place I used to work when I was 16. Last week I took a wander and looked around.

I remember this thread distinctly.

Would you live your life again?

Then I would have said - if I could be 16 again, with the mind that I have now - you bet the hell I would.

It's not so much that I dislike what I have now - as much as it's easier looking back on how precious your time was, and how even small decisions could have disproportionate effects.

There are things I would have liked to have done different - and in my early 30's, with family, I'm already on the bridge to middle-aged, and my opportunities have shrunken with it.

The teenage years are one of uncertain restlessness. But mentally, I guess I never really left.

I guess the real trick is not to look back to then and wonder "what if" - as much as mentally transport the self forward many years, even decades, and imagine looking back at yourself from that remote vantage point.

And then ask the question: "What would you change now?"

[mirrorinthefog]

Although it might be an interesting experience (the chance to correct mistakes and prevent others from being harmed) I agree that nobody is above mistakes. Besides there's no fun in being perfect.
Although, I wouldn't mind being the four year old with the mind of an adult. (Maybe I've read too many Anne Rice novels?) Someone who is observant could easily fake being a child around others, or at least around adults, if not family members, for a while. It would give me the oportunity later on to skip the many pitfalls laid on my path.
As for changing personally, well, that really doesn't matter to me. I've gone through so many drastic changes that I was certain I'd never experience that I no longer have a desire to 'remain the way I am' (after all, I would be starting out as the person I am today, and there's no guarantee that I'll remain this way forever let alone in the near future, so it really doesn't matter how I change personally as a result of returning to the past)
My concern would be to see the ones I love repeating mistakes that I know would lead them to harm or eventually harm those around them, unable to prevent them, or preventing them with good intentions only to lead them into worse traps or misfortune. I don't think I want that responsibility.
I can't know everything, and I seriously don't know how the world would change as a result of my altering the future, any more than I know how I am altering the future now simply by being here! And as far as the pains of puberty et al, no, I don't think I would like to relive that, in any way shape or form. At the same time, it would be nice to believe I have/had more control over some aspects of my life at the time, or at least the oportunity to change it.
But the heart of the matter is you can never truly have control over anything but yourself, and even that, to a limited degree.

[granni]

as many of you have stated:

had we been able to 'go back in time' and make different choices, the lives we live today would not exist. our children, and other loved ones would not be in our lives. other lives would have been impacted by the choices made and not made....rippling farther than we can see.

not one of us got to where we are with ease. well, not at the time of many of our experiences. but, we learned from those experiences. and that accumulating wisdom designed the person we are today.

i like who i am. i look back at where i've been, and things experienced....and, still, i like who i've become. even perceived bad experiences have good outcomes, although not known at the time.

in all of the world, and in all of life.... the only thing we can ever change is, ourself.


life is like a tapestry. as we're living it, we can only see the back side with all the threads hither and yon, the loose strings and plethoria of knots. in time, we'll see the front, and be awed at the masterpiece.

would i go back? no.

it's been a grande adventure, and this book's not yet complete. so, i'll jes settle back, and continue the reading...er, writing.

i will however, analyze a prior chapter in order to make perceived better choices with a current chapter.

it would seem to be more a perception of now, rather than a desire for then.

granni

[aladdin]

This is such a fun thread to read! Well immediately, what you wrote Brian made me think of the Nietzsche quote:::

The heaviest burden: “What, if some day or night, a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life, as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh… must return to you—all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over again and again—and you with it speck of dust!’ Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: ‘You are a god, and never have I heard anything more divine!’ If this thought were to gain possession of you, it would change you as you are, or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, “do you want this once more and innumerable times more?” would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?” (The Gay Science, s. 341)

But then I re-read your question and I saw you implied we could make different decisions!!!

I would love to make a time machine and go back, but then you get in a conundrum I guess.

If it was as Nietzsche says I could not go back. Too much to relive!

If I could make different choices! Definitely. that'd be very fun!!!! and with the knowledge you have acquired after becoming older you know what to do.

[Sacredstar]

I AM happy that I survived it, still standing and sane, from hell to heaven was an amazing journey that I would not wish on anyone. So no I would not wish to do it all again in the next life. There was a time when I was convinced I had one more incarnation on earth, but now I know I will not be back again.

Yes the journey helped me to become who I AM and pain/suffering was my greatest teacher.

Love beyond measure

Sacredstar

[Faithfulservant]

This has been a wish of mine since the age of 12. I would like to back and tell my Dad how to prevent the cancer that he died of. I even dream about doing that very thing.

EWWW though high school again? Or UGH going through labor again? *shudder*

[Bandit]

I just wish the problems would stop. Not just mine, but everyones. It seems like just when you think you get to breathe, here comes something ELSE. What stinks is I try my BEST to never cause anyone any problems, but some people are just bred to create problems and make life difficult.

The funny thing is, I have spent the past 8 years to myself, working and going home and somehow the problems keep finding me. So I would not live my life over but I do wish I could change a couple of things from the past which is impossible to do now. I have had a wonderful life, blessed beyond measure.

What I kind of wish is, some other people I know would live there life over and leave the peaceful people out of it. (if you know what I mean)

[mirrorinthefog]

Originally Posted by Bandit

....What stinks is I try my BEST to never cause anyone any problems, but some people are just bred to create problems and make life difficult.
......
What I kind of wish is, some other people I know would live there life over and leave the peaceful people out of it. (if you know what I mean)

I agree wholeheartedly. Most of the problems I've had in life have been caused by other people who can't keep themselves to themselves. It drives me crazy.

[suanni]

If I could go armed with some of the knowledge that I have now, yes. I would certainly correct some mistakes I have made in my life but then where would I be today if those mistakes were corrected? Would I have just gone on to make further mistakes and then wish again to correct those mistakes.
Its a double edged sword....be thankful for what I've got now I suppose