Someone asked elsewhere: What would you choose, Sal?
I’m still pondering.
Would I relive my life knowing what I know now and be constrained to live through =everything= knowing, for instance, about an upcoming miscarriage or divorce, the death of three siblings and my parents, all the crap and miseries? I couldn’t even spend more time with my sister or brothers or parents than I did because that would not be a life that was “just exactly as before.”
I’m not sure the happiness and satisfaction would offset the crap I’d have to live through again.
If I were oblivious, mind swept clear of understanding and memories, then maybe I would, but if I had to reprise my entire life with my memories intact and with foreknowledge of what unchangeable sadness was coming up next September. …
Probably not.
But … if … at the end of the reliving, I’d get more time, wouldn’t I? More time would be good.
Or would I be asked again when today rolls round again, would I be asked again at this instant, to make the choice again and choose whether to feed back into the infinite loop?
The question is a different one from whether I would change anything that had happened to me in the past. To that one I always say “no changes,” because all that came before — even the deaths and the sadnesses and the broken hearts and the wish-I-hadn’ts — led to where I am today and I’m pretty happy with today, thankyouverymuch.