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I started devouring de Lint's Tapping The Dream Tree collection. So far, the stories have pulled me in completely -- particularly "Many Worlds Are Born Tonight." That one is powerful enough to give me chills. It made me really consider the possibility of what happens to all the decisions we never make, the other paths we chose to not take. The "many worlds" theory of cosmology.
I have thought about it many times over the past few years: What if I had not decided to take the leap to be with Adam? Never emailed him that day in June 1999, asking how he was. What if I had turned down Tish's offer to set me Adam? What if Tish had not started dating Bane, or even met him? She wouldn't have met Adam or James. What if I had never met Tish? Or what if I had decided to not be friends with her? She was the catalyst for where I am right now. And what if I decided to not apply to SUNY Purchase, or what if I had not been accepted? I wouldn't have become friends with Corinne, who introduced me to Tish, who introduced me to Bane, James, and Adam. I wouldn't be here. Where would I be? Would I still be living with my parents? Would I have met someone else, fell in love, lived somewhere else? What about Adam; would be still be launching himself into a string of bad relationships? I won't ever know, because those choices were never made.
But in other worlds, they were.
And then, the little things: You think about going to a nightclub one Saturday. You decide not to, and instead you call up some friends and have a quite night at someone's house. But in another world, you did go into that nightclub, and there you met someone who would become the love of your life, or your best friend, or someone who would mean something great to you. Or, you apply for two jobs and get accepted in both cases. Which job do you choose? You might choose one, but in another world, you have chosen the other.
Adam calls it "the five minute window." His theory is that every decision in our lives, every choice, every event, everything we do, hinges on choices that were made within five minutes and events that occur within five minutes. You strike up a conversation with a pretty girl or a handsome guy and you wind up in a relationship that lasts for years. You send in a resume to a certain company and get your dream job. You make or receive a fateful phone call and your life changes forever.
Little things. Little choices.
Charles de Lint struck a deep nerve with "Many Worlds Are Born Tonight" and I am grateful. I can only hope that at the end of my life, I will see that giant Ferris wheel made of bones, carrying all my possibilities, all the people I could have been, all the things I could have done. All the worlds I could have lived.
I have thought about it many times over the past few years: What if I had not decided to take the leap to be with Adam? Never emailed him that day in June 1999, asking how he was. What if I had turned down Tish's offer to set me Adam? What if Tish had not started dating Bane, or even met him? She wouldn't have met Adam or James. What if I had never met Tish? Or what if I had decided to not be friends with her? She was the catalyst for where I am right now. And what if I decided to not apply to SUNY Purchase, or what if I had not been accepted? I wouldn't have become friends with Corinne, who introduced me to Tish, who introduced me to Bane, James, and Adam. I wouldn't be here. Where would I be? Would I still be living with my parents? Would I have met someone else, fell in love, lived somewhere else? What about Adam; would be still be launching himself into a string of bad relationships? I won't ever know, because those choices were never made.
But in other worlds, they were.
And then, the little things: You think about going to a nightclub one Saturday. You decide not to, and instead you call up some friends and have a quite night at someone's house. But in another world, you did go into that nightclub, and there you met someone who would become the love of your life, or your best friend, or someone who would mean something great to you. Or, you apply for two jobs and get accepted in both cases. Which job do you choose? You might choose one, but in another world, you have chosen the other.
Adam calls it "the five minute window." His theory is that every decision in our lives, every choice, every event, everything we do, hinges on choices that were made within five minutes and events that occur within five minutes. You strike up a conversation with a pretty girl or a handsome guy and you wind up in a relationship that lasts for years. You send in a resume to a certain company and get your dream job. You make or receive a fateful phone call and your life changes forever.
Little things. Little choices.
Charles de Lint struck a deep nerve with "Many Worlds Are Born Tonight" and I am grateful. I can only hope that at the end of my life, I will see that giant Ferris wheel made of bones, carrying all my possibilities, all the people I could have been, all the things I could have done. All the worlds I could have lived.
