Other Places to Be

The other night my 21-year-old daughter and I were in the car. She's an aspiring and quite talented writer, and though her interests don't always coincide with mine, we find much mutual ground. She was talking about a play she had seen in which the concept of alternative universes came up. The sort of places in which different versions of ourselves follow through with different decisions we made or didn't make. The nearest pop culture episode I came up with was the Dr. Who one, "Turn Left," in which Donna gets sent back in time and is pressured to make a different choice and all Hell breaks loose (not quite literally, but close).

But upon further review, that's not really parallel. That's going back and changing the one existing universe. Daughter and I were talking about concurrently existing universes in which our alternate selves are busily going on with their/our lives.

I've always been ho-hum about the idea, nice theory but so what. But something triggered my thoughts this time. What if it's really true? Someone who is me, sharing my foibles and dreams and very essence, going through life in a different direction than I. If that is really me, then it would seem that I could somehow make contact with that being, in the sense that no one is closer to me than me. If we are the same but different, there must be a point at which we are different but the same. Wouldn't it be cool -- and a whole lot paradigm-shaking -- to find that connecting point? To experience things we of which we never dreamed, and maybe some things we did dream but never got to? I'm not talking about ending or escaping this life, but rather of expanding it.

Any of this make sense? And no I have not been indulging in any mind-expanding substances. I gave up pot years ago and ran out of wine yesterday.

Wouldn't it be a cool story? But I so want it to be true.