Thursday
Apr262007
Come to me future self
Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 06:15AM
Recently I finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Besides being a great story, the book messed with my head a little. In a good way. The ideas of time and time travel are difficult to wrap my mind around, and after reading the novel I think that we're better off without the ability to move around in time. If everyone started time traveling, the world would be a chaotic mess with no sense of boundaries or order. As a person who feels naked without her watch, I'm happy within the confines of time as we know it.
However, this post (on an über-popular blog I'm sure you all read) made me think how nice it would be if a "me" from the future could travel back in time to right now and tell the present "me" that everything turns out okay. That eventually I'll find a way out of this and feel better.
In the book, the time traveler, Henry, often runs into himself. Sometimes a future Henry will meet himself in the present or a past Henry will land in the living room of his future self. Or his future self will meet up with his wife or a friend in the past. It's all very complicated really. It's tempting to reveal parts of the future to himself, but Henry usually refrains from telling any past selves about the future, trying to maintain some sense of normalcy in his far from normal life. But occasionally he'll spill a little, mostly just to reassure himself or someone else that everything turns out fine, they don't have to worry.
That's what I could use right now. I don't want any spoilers, I don't need to know where I end up or what I'll be doing a year from now. I just want to know that it turns out okay. I think I could be reassured knowing that even though I can't say everything is okay now, someday my "self" is able to say it is. If only Shannon of 2008 could walk in right now, hug me, and say "It's all going to be okay, I promise. Just hold on a little longer." I think it might be easier to hold on.*
*Also, wouldn't it be nice if I wasn't such a downer anymore?
However, this post (on an über-popular blog I'm sure you all read) made me think how nice it would be if a "me" from the future could travel back in time to right now and tell the present "me" that everything turns out okay. That eventually I'll find a way out of this and feel better.
In the book, the time traveler, Henry, often runs into himself. Sometimes a future Henry will meet himself in the present or a past Henry will land in the living room of his future self. Or his future self will meet up with his wife or a friend in the past. It's all very complicated really. It's tempting to reveal parts of the future to himself, but Henry usually refrains from telling any past selves about the future, trying to maintain some sense of normalcy in his far from normal life. But occasionally he'll spill a little, mostly just to reassure himself or someone else that everything turns out fine, they don't have to worry.
That's what I could use right now. I don't want any spoilers, I don't need to know where I end up or what I'll be doing a year from now. I just want to know that it turns out okay. I think I could be reassured knowing that even though I can't say everything is okay now, someday my "self" is able to say it is. If only Shannon of 2008 could walk in right now, hug me, and say "It's all going to be okay, I promise. Just hold on a little longer." I think it might be easier to hold on.*
*Also, wouldn't it be nice if I wasn't such a downer anymore?
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Reader Comments (6)
Oh, I hear you. I especially yearn to talk to a future version of myself when I look back at extended periods of worry or anxiety and realize that they turned out all right, and that I wasted a lot of time on migraines and insomnia. Which I'm doing at the moment, actually.
I'm sure you'll be fine, Shannon. I'm fairly new to your blog but from everything I've read, you have so much going for you. Everything will be okay.
Hypothetically, though, what if it weren't going to be okay? What if something tragic were going to happen? Then, when you asked for the reassurance and can't have it, your life would be nothing but frantic worry.
Basically you only want the news if it's good news, but if it isn't than you'd prefer no news. Am I right?
Good point Lindsay. Yeah I don't think I want to know bad news. I don't want to know any news really, just get reassurance. So if there is no reassurance to give then I guess I don't want to talk to my future self. So since my future self hasn't visited yet, should I take that as a sign that it's bad news for me? Or just that time travel isn't possible?
i used to leave little notes to myself, my future self, letting me know what i wished for me and where i currently was. when my future me would find these notes, i would hold them tight and wish i could hug my younger me and reassure her ... (okay i say used to but i kind of still do this, only i use an email program now) ... anyway, if you look back and realize that you are in such a better place somehow then you can pretty much count on the fact that your future you will look back and reassure the you now.
oh my.
i don't even know if what i wrote makes any sense but it does it my head. though how helpful is that? :p
I read that book last year (boyfriend at the time said I had to read it because it made him cry) and when I read dooce's post today I thought of the book too.
I'm confident that you'll be OK. If not exactly next year, then at some point after that. Or maybe sooner.