Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Theme Thursday - Palm


Palm.

To have something in the palm of your hand means you have complete control over it. Seems like an Idealic statement. How can you have true control over anything? At school at the moment we're learning about Private and Mixed goods. The difference being that mixed goods have an externality an unexpected event cause by the consumption of the mixed good. Life is a mixed good. Everything we do effects everything else. Have you seen the movie the Butterfly Effect? Its where the main character can focus his energy and go back to a moment in his life where he "blacked out" and relive these moments and change the events that happened. In each situation he changes he ends up in a new situation. New friends, the girl he likes is with someone else, or with him. He's friends with the massive goth kid or they've never even met.
Perhaps the externalities we cause arent as massive, changing what we do at one paticular moment shouldn't change the outcomes now should they?
It does make you think though, what if at that moment? What if I had been smarter? Better? Braver? The regrets of the things you should've, could've done.
For me the moment I always think about is when I was in my 3rd year at school. Room 11. My teacher Mrs Lawn came up to me at lunch and asked me if I wanted to be in the play for end of year assembly. After a brief thought I declined. My then bestfriend was asked and he did the part. You could maybe say I palmed the part off to him. :P (Extra points for getting another phrase related to palms right?). He's now a bit of a drama buff, a musician, happy to get infront of a crowd and address them. I'm not saying this one experience made him what he is today. It certainly helped. What if I rather than declining Mrs Lawn had been brave enough to say yes? What if I'd had that part. How would it have changed me? Would I be braver? Less shy? Would that experience at such a young stage of life turned me into an ultimately more extroverted person?
I don't know if it would. I do know that if I knew what I knew know about life and experiences I have had. I would have said yes. If I had a time machine I would tell little 9yr old me to do it. Be brave do the play.
Perhaps then it would mean that I had more control over life in the palm of my hand? Simply because it would change the space of my mind. Of course dwelling on the past living with regrets is stupid. "If we hold on to the past then we cannot fully embrace the present" Is a phrase I recently heard. Its so simple yet so amazingly true. The same could be said about worrying about the future. Or holding on to the what ifs. I think of all the times I have spent hours dreaming of what could have happened. The what ifs. I've wasted so much time on the what ifs. Its a bad habit I'm working on breaking. Need to start on the what do I do RIGHT NOW. Then rather than sitting staring at space perhaps I should be studying, or atleast doing the homework I never do. Who knows!

Ok this post seems a bit of a shambles now. . . Nevermind! Happy Theme thursday!

9 comments:

Brian Miller said...

ha. actually i thought it rather brilliant..good job taking the theme to unepected places...like the tie to the butterfly effect which was an interesting and weird movie....so the next time do the play...happy tt!

Julie said...

Not shambolic at all. I found it quite moving. I agree about not holding on to the past EXCEPT for what we take from each experience, what we learn. That becomes the new us, the one that moves into the now. The current us.

I am not convinced about the need to reassess the declining the part in the play. You are all your decisions and all your decisions are right for you at that time. There are other things that you accepted with alacrity and steamed straight on into.

I like the way you think and the way you allow it to pour out of you. Fascinating take on the theme and I thank you for it.

Me said...

I loved this post! My favourite line? "Life is a mixed good". Absolutely!

PS - I "did the play" when I was 10. Didn't have any affect, as far as I can tell. :)

moondustwriter said...

this was a great reflection on the 'what ifs" of life.
Learn from them don't hyper analyze them. For your tomorrows will soon be your tomorrows but your yesterdays will remain behind you.



Enjoy life my friend.

Leeuna said...

I enoyed your post very much. You sound like a well-rounded person, so I'm guessing that not doing the play didn't hurt you that much. I read a quote once that said: "It's better to regret the things you've done than to regret the things you didn't do." (I don't know if that's good advice or not, however) Some regrets are worse than others. :)

P.S. My word verification for this post is "taglama". I thought that was funny.

Austin said...

I agree with Brian, this was brilliant. Nice weave of the theme into a daily life we all live.

Great lines and thoughts in there!

Claudia said...

i enjoyed reading your post - and i like that you turn away from the what ifs (those little and big what ifs are the most silly and most useless creatures on earth..) and i'm sure - next time you will jump and do the play - or whatever it is...

Meri said...

We write to uncover the past; to learn what we think; to hold our experience in the palm of our hands and learn from it.

Gladys said...

Great post. I love the way you think out loud. Remember there is no time like the present to live life to the fullest!