Have you ever played an RPG with multiple endings? The ending depends on choices you make during the game. I usually like to save the game before those choices and play out all the different endings. I believe that I am attracted to RPG’s because of how it imitates real life. During our lifetime we are forced to make an almost infinite amount of choices ranging from mundane to life changing. Each choice we make has some sort of effect. Sometimes these effects are so small that we do not even notice them.
I can not help but wonder what lies at the other end (or ends) of the choices we make. According to some theories in string-theory there are an infinite amount of parallel worlds. Some of you might have seen the movie called ‘Sliding Doors’. What if each of these parallel worlds, represent a different choice with a different outcome. Would they all converge on the same ending like in the movie? Can an infinite amount of choices lead to a finite amount of endings or does it lead to an infinite number of endings? How much effect can my choices have on the rest of the world? Does the ‘butterfly effect’ really apply?
These are questions that, as yet, have no answers but it is clear that our choices have a great effect on our own lives. In an ideal world, we would have all the information necessary to make an informed choice, to choose the outcome that we would prefer. On one hand, it irks me that I cannot always predict what the outcome of my choices will be, or which choice is the best.
We use the resources we have at the time, gather information, compare and weigh, list pros and cons, just to decide whether we should get the vanilla or the choc-mint ice cream. It is always easy to say you should have chosen differently after a choice was made, but even then, you can not be a 100% sure the outcome would have been preferable.
Every choice we make has a price but we rarely know what that price is. What do you sacrifice by choosing one thing over another? What things do you miss out on by going one way rather than another? Can one choice determine that you will never be happy or will there always be a chance to return to happiness? People suffering from decidophobia are so afraid of making (wrong) choices that they depend on others to make their choices for them.
You can spend a lifetime second-guessing your own choices. That is why I decided not to regret any choice I make. In this world, this one continuous moment of consciousness, I will make my choices and stick with them, even if the outcomes are less than desirable. Perhaps there is a me in one of those parallel worlds that made all the right choices and is living the best life imaginable. That thought is enough…for now.
