Would I really want a chance to do it again?

First of all, for all you prompt bloggers out there, there is a new writing challenge that can take off if we are willing to help out, called the “What If? writing challenge”. Find it here.

Cover of "Groundhog Day (15th Anniversary... — I’m thinking the real question is, how did the dude from Caddyshack get into my alarm clock, and “who you gonna call” about that?

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray? I remember having seen it several times when I was younger. I can’t remember what triggers it, or if that’s even explained, but he keeps waking up on the same morning as his alarm clock goes off, and ends up having the same day over and over and over. At first he feels like he’s going crazy, and then he kind of starts to; he tries killing himself at one point, and just ends up waking up in bed again – same bat time, same bat channel. Eventually, he begins to try to do things right, to get the day just right, and in the process he learns to play piano like a crazy virtuoso and falls in love, I think with Andie MacDowell‘s character. The rest is kind of foggy.

So I’m forced to wonder, would I really want to have this chance? Or more to the point – Murray’s character was essentially being held prisoner, a hostage to a single spin of the Earth, with some inexplicit exit clause. Is it any wonder he tried to kill himself? An American P.O.W. soldier is required by the rules to try to escape. When you’re stuck repeating the same day over and over, would you get to that point? I might. Thank goodness it’s not a possibility, right? (knocks on wood)

If I were in there, though, what day would I choose? Oh wait – this is in fact a question of ‘if I had a day to do over. . . ‘ Now that’s a little sneaky. I’m not sure what day I’d do over, and that might be a good thing; let me explain. I’ve screwed up an awful lot in my life. I’d be hard-pressed to pick just one day because where I am now is really a compounded calculation of everything that I have done up to this point, and the farther back you go the more the little things seem to count. Whether I folded my socks or balled them up in 1996 might actually have a significant impact on whether I have a wife or not right now. Consider that. It seems a little out there, but then it’s like, “if you could go back and bang any girl from your past . . . ”

Yeah, I’m not going to play that. It’s a dangerous game for several reasons.

That’s why when I’m approached with a question like this, I like to stay far away; and if I got stuck in this scenario, I’m fairly certain I don’t get a choice as to which day it is, do I? I’m more likely to believe that someone else screwed up a machine meant to bridge between parallel dimensions and now as a result I have to live across every dimension before I can move forward by a single day. Now that would have interesting effects. First of all, what’s the chance I ran across somebody who is already in the know? Well that depends upon if and when someone has entered this particular dimension. It’s like a crapshoot as to whether any one person is living the same day over and over, and then again whether they have figured it out yet. Then there’s the question of fatigue. How many dimensions are there, anyway?

Bad news, guys:

It’s probably infinite.

Ha ha! So which day would I choose? None of them!

Furthermore, is it possible to get life “right”? Let’s put it this way: what is right? What is wrong? Do we have the right to judge, between right and wrong, good and evil, black and white, Coke and Pepsi, Whopper and Big Mac? The fact is, this is why whoever wrote the bible (and don’t answer that if you don’t want my response) put a tree of the knowledge of good and evil right in the middle of the paradisaical Garden of Eden: because certain enlightened disciplines posit that nothing is good and nothing is evil, and putting a label on something does not make it so. When we do that, we only create a source of frustration for ourselves and for others who subscribe to those labels; that is why we DO. NOT. EAT. The FRUIT. The temptation is there, but to give in is the quickest path out of paradise, period.

I like my life. I would change the future by simply stating what I would like to accomplish. I will never, ever, touch the past willingly. If I had a way, I would never use it. In my book, there’s no such thing as right and wrong. Everything simply is, and I try my best to live with love. I’m never perfect, and sometimes it goes somewhat poorly.

Oh well.

🙂

This post was prompted by today’s Daily Post prompt.

6 comments

dflorack says:

September 1, 2013 at 3:06 pm

Very well done, Rob. I didn’t think of it that way. It would be awful to be stuck repeating some things, and if I did change something, how would that affect now? I enjoyed your post. It made me think.

- Rob's Surf Report says:
  
  September 1, 2013 at 3:20 pm
  
  😀 I’ll tell you what, making even one person think just makes my day. Thanks for reading and commenting!
  
iamfunny2 says:

September 1, 2013 at 3:29 pm

I agree 100%. None of them is the only answer I could come up with as well.

Thanks for the mention on the What if challenge. Appreciated your post and your support.

- Rob's Surf Report says:
  
  September 1, 2013 at 3:39 pm
  
  You bet, I’m looking forward to more! (and I’ve still got that other one saved up for the near future.)
  
mrsstobias32 says:

September 1, 2013 at 5:54 pm

No do overs. I use my pass as a teaching tool with my two daughters. Good and bad. Great read!

- Rob's Surf Report says:
  
  September 2, 2013 at 7:47 am
  
  Thanks, and thanks for reading and commenting!