Re: The Road with no Branches argument

From: noel (no_at_email.com)
Date: 10/22/04 

Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 13:59:42 -0700

: Whenever we make a choice we are doing (or think we are doing) something
like
: what a traveler does when faced with a choice between different roads.
[snip]

Life is not like a road. First roads are different. Some roads meet later
down the
line, some don't. Some roads go into way different areas than other roads,
some
roads just go a little different than other roads. The terrain around some
roads
makes it impossible to get to the other road, as in one road goes on one
side
of a mountain and the other goes on the other side. Or one goes over the dam
and the other goes around, like where I live in Nevada. If you take the
regular
highway then you go over Hoover Dam, which I wish they would rename Boulder
Dam, which it was originally before it became a political statement.

So roads are different and you can change the past. What is important about
the
past? Our interpretation, the feelings that it evokes, the trauma or
pleasure that
memories bring us. You can't change the facts of the past but how it effects
you,
the important part can be changed. Say someone has been beat up. as a child,
and still feels confused and hurt by the experience, because the person did
not
do anything wrong and wonder why it happened, maybe feeling that it was a
punishment. Well, along comes the guy or girl who beat him up. He says, "I'm
sorry for what happened. I've felt bad about it a lot. I know it's not an
excuse
but you reminded me of my cousin who raped me and beat me up. I didn't
realize until years later that all of the dreams and practicing I did for
the time
when I could take revenge on my cousins, I did to you. You didn't deserve it
and I'm truly sorry." So all of a sudden your complex clears up. Your faith
in
mankind is a little greater. You don't cringe a little inside whenever his
name is
mentioned, and maybe you've got a new friend, and maybe you feel a little
sorry for him because you realize he went through far more pain than you.
The past has changed.

Quantcast