What if Jim Douglas never adopted Jagdish (Tytler)? What if Heisenberg was not a Pacifist? What if Bush Jr had never been elected president? What if I'd never left Delhi to come to Bombay?
There are billions of questions like these...some with terrible consequences...some that are meaningless and yet fun to think about...and some that just bring a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye.
What makes me bring this, of all things, up? A classic mixture of pictures and words... The Butterfly Effect and "What If-", by Isaac Asimov.
This combination got me thinking... thinking about the choices I've made in the past and the effect they have on me now. It also made me wonder whether what I did was right...or for the best...or both...or neither?
Everyone comes to a crossroads in their life, now and then. The choices we make at these points are what determine who we are at every moment after that, be it a few minutes or half a century later.
Take a judge, for example, who has to choose between punishing a first time juvenile offender, or letting him off with a warning. If the choice is to punish, that child may (and probably will) grow into a hardened criminal, whose later actions will not only affect him, but also the lives of those who become the subject of his crimes, AS WELL as the people associated with them, leading to a colossal chain of effect for that single action of punishment.
On the other hand, if the judge chooses compassion, an entirely new chain of events will be set in motion. With proper guidance, the man who would have gone on to ruin several lives, his included, could become a contributor to society.
The flutter of a butterfly's wings can cause a typhoon halfway around the world.
