Seeing into the future, hindsight, and backlash

Part 1

INT. PHYSICS CLASS - DAY (2 P.M.)

Donnie and Dr. Monnitoff are having another in-depth
conversation.

DR. MONNITOFF
Each vessel travels along a vector path
through space-time... along its centre of
gravity.

DONNIE
(to himself)
Like a spear.

DR. MONNITOFF
Beg pardon?

DONNIE
Like a spear that comes out of your
stomach?

DR. MONNITOFF
Uhh... sure. And in order for the vessel
to travel through time it must find the
portal, in this case the wormhole, or
some unforeseen portal that lies
undiscovered.

DONNIE
Could these wormholes appear in nature?

DR. MONNITOFF
That... is highly unlikely. You're talking
about an act of God.

DONNIE
If God controls time... then all time is
pre-decided. Then every living thing
travels along a set path.

DR. MONNITOFF
I'm not following you.

DONNIE
If you could see your path or channel
growing out of your stomach, you could see
into the future. And that's a form of
time travel, right?

DR. MONNITOFF
You are contradicting yourself, Donnie. If
we could see our destines manifest
themselves visually... then we would be
given the choice to betray our chosen
destinies. The very fact that this choice
exists... would mean that all pre-formed
destiny would end.

DONNIE
Not if you chose to stay within God's
channel...

- excerpt from Donnie Darko (according to script-o-rama.com)



There is some truth to what Donnie is saying. Even when you can see your own future, you don’t change it. And it’s interesting, your backlash when what you knew would happen comes to past.

There have been several instances in my life where I could predict outcomes of my actions ahead of time (years ahead of time in some cases), and even when those outcomes were detrimental I didn’t stop myself. And I would kick and scream is if I had no idea of the consequences.

And look at Christianity (since the quote involves God). Jesus knew he’d die on the cross and be forsaken by His Father, but he screamed anyway asking, “My God My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Stupid, isn’t it? But what can we do about it? To change our futures is really to change who we are, and that’s quite difficult. Every time I try to change it feels too forced. It feels like I’m trying to be someone else. And yet I don’t like where I’m headed, partly because I know I’m not in complete control, but also because I can see where I’ll be in the end. And I’ve tried to break out and find a different path, but there is none. There is only what’s in front of me and what’s behind me.

That’s not to say that I don’t want what’s ahead of me. Nor to say that I want what is behind me. It’s just, I like it better when what I want was a choice among several options…not because it was my only option.

I’ll have to trust that there is more in front of me that I can’t see yet.

Continue to Part 2