Checking In With Parallel Universe You

A soft buzzing sound began to emanate from within the confines of my purse. I fumbled around for the source of the noise for another two short sessions of unceasing ringing before pulling out my cell phone and answering it.

“Pizza or fish tacos?” There was no “hi” or “hello,” just the question asked with a bit of urgency attached to it.

“Uh, hello, to you too, sis,” I responded.

“Pizza or fish tacos? Quick, I’m coming up on a turn.” The voice was, apparently, traveling by car and had called me in a panic asking for dinner choices—nothing new.

“Pizza?” I responded.

“Eh, no,” the voice said. “I’m getting fish tacos. Thanks.” The line had abruptly ceased to exist. The voice had ended the call.

My sister often calls me when she needs to make quick food decisions. She tells me that she’s able to really find out what she wants to eat by me replying with the wrong answer. In a way, she gets to live out both options before choosing by forcing someone else to make the decision before she does. It’s a little weird, but an interesting concept when you picture it in a different way.

On the same planet, but in a different world, there is another version of you—or at least that is what the people who believe there are parallel universes say. Can you imagine living on a separate timeline in a different outcome or decision you had made? Knowing for certain, after each possible scenario in your life has run its course, whether or not you made the correct choice in the first place?

In a world of endless possibilities, uncertain truths, and nothing but your feelings and beliefs to hold on to, one often becomes lost in the what-ifs and could-have-been. You tend to unintentionally dwell on the life that you could be leading in a parallel universe.

The ability to think, to choose, and to act voluntarily puts us in a wonderful burden of a dilemma with our free will and inherent choice allowing us to be the authors of our unforeseen fate. We have no idea where any of our choices lead, but we make them anyway because we are allowed to, and we have the ability to do so.

My sister can only imagine another life where she chose pizza that night instead of fish tacos. There will always be an unforeseen outcome of choosing what (I am assuming to be) the cartoon version of Julius Caesar had to offer. Her only choice after making her decision is to keep moving forward, to live her life, and to enjoy the tacos.