The other night I was walking along the street. Contemplating on my own life, and if I truly was as behind as I thought. Continuing that line of thinking it made me consider the many worlds theory, or "multiverse". Now this post may seem like it'll go off the rails, but give it a chance.
In this theory basically every decision we make leads to a new timeline. You times that by every person, then the numbers start to add up quick.
Maybe you limit it by it only including important actions, or maybe pivotal people (who is to say who qualifies either). However it does make you think about what actions would qualify, and which ones would create a person who would qualify as "important" in the grand scheme of things?
Truly our universe is so vast, and the countless systems out there are bound to have life. Thus making the Earth and everything on it insignificant.
What truly matters?
I've been getting a bit Nihilist lately, and wondering if really anything we do matters. History is bound to forget us, unless we make a huge contribution to humanity, and even then...
I've known from a young age that I wanted to do just that, make a huge contribution. Everything I do is leading up to that in my head, and hopefully in history by actions.
Who is to say though however that any action no matter how small or big is going to matter? Do they compound, or is that our imagination?
Every time I go through this thought puzzle I come across the same bit of wisdom that I heard from old philosophies: The only thing that matters is what you believe matters. It's not so much the power of belief, as it is we decide what is truly important.
Either individually or as a species.
Living is a combination of Consequences and Planning
What happens to us over the course of our lives is either a direct consequence of our actions (good or bad), and/or due to us planning for it to happen a certain way.
We cannot plan the future anymore than we can avoid the past. In both cases they have already happened, and we live through it. We can only change what is happening in the present moment.
Thus if we make a decision that we feel might greatly impact our future. We can only go with what consequences it might follow. We can't waste time thinking about what could have been. This occured recently with me as I quit one of my jobs, which could have been the financial freedom I have been waiting for, but would it have been worth the sacrifices? Not sure...
Now I must accept the consequences, meaning less income, but more freedom of time.
The point of this post is almost lost on you by now, as we went in a different direction. Or did we?
One thing we can say for certain is that we are going to die. Even with life extension and all that, there is no certainty that we will be able to live forever. Meaning at some point down the line we will perish.
Momento Mori
Perhaps that is what we can linger our thoughts around, and push forward. Most people act as if they have all the time in the world, but we do not. We act as if tomorrow is for certain, and I almost got hit by a car twice today already.
Most people fail to truly live. I have seen the path of what my life will entail, and I intend to go down it. I am frustrated as for whatever reason I feel like my time is bleeding into the next chapter, yet I am unable to flip the page.
Every fiber of my being is wanting to start the next chapter, and continue my story. Perhaps in this timeline I failed at some point to turn the page soon enough. Maybe I can't fully complete my story because I took too long??
These are the things that worry me, but again we cannot be too futurospective. We must release that worry, and focus on what we can do. In the here and now.