The fact is, for every one degree a plane gets off course, it will miss its targeted landing spot by 92 feet for every mile you fly. ~ Sam DiGiovanna
Doesn’t sound like much if you don’t do the math. I did do the math, though. Let’s say I take a flight from McGhee Tyson to Memphis International Airport (393.3 miles). If the flight path is in error by only 1 degree the plane would be 6.85 miles off course. Personally, I’d rather arrive at the airport, rather than halfway back to I-40. But this post isn’t about flying or landing in the wrong spot. Well, not literally. I’m thinking about course corrections and bullets we have dodged.
For every minscule change, your world can shift
Spoiler alert. If you haven’t seen the movie “Frequency” but you plan to, you’ve been warned.
Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel (main characters) play the father and son, respectively. At the time the movie begins, the son is an adult and the father has been dead for 30 years. Through some fluke in the atmosphere involving the aurora borealis, the father’s ham radio connects the son and the father. That is, they’re talking to each other on that radio, sitting in the same house, but 30 years apart. Yeah, I know it’s impossible, but the movie provides a solid example for my topic.
The very first time they talk, John realizes he might be able to use his present-day knowledge to prevent his father’s death in a fire. From there the pair caroms from one successful change to another. But. Saving his father’s life set off a series of other events that would not have happened absent that one decision. When his mother would have been at home, mourning, she was instead working at the hospital where she saved a life. Unfortunately, the man she saved was a murderer who would later attempt to kill her.
There are other examples in the movie, but you get the picture. At least, I hope you do. Admittedly, it’s a bit convoluted – much easier to understand, once watched. One change in the dominoes displaces other events. Events that aren’t necessarily desirable.
But life isn't a movie, you say? No, but there are degrees of change.
Movies are mostly works of fiction. However, sometimes there are grains of truth in freakishly unlikely stories. As an example, think of the people who didn’t die in the Twin Towers because they decided not to go to work, or they were late and arrived in the city after the crashes. You may have experienced times where you were grateful you hadn’t left the house sooner since that might have meant you would have been involved in in a horrific accident instead of simply waiting for the heavy traffic ahead of you to clear. Alternatively, there may have been occasions when you left on time for a flight, but your car stalled out en route.
That happened to me once, and I was blessed when a good Samaritan stopped to help me. If either of us had left home at a different time, he wouldn’t have been passing at that moment. Someone else may have helped. Perhaps, but I’ll never know. Then a highway patrolman dropped me off at the airport in time to make my plane. Just barely, but just enough.
Such a string of coincidences. The car could have quit in the middle of the road, and I might never have boarded another plane. Or anything else. That day could have ended in three different ways: injury or death, missing the plane, or catching the plane. It landed on the best one, the only one that wouldn’t have had a negative effect.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. ~Heractilus
Your life has waves and you change your direction with every decision.
My insurance career was steady, in the scheme of things. Six years with one agency and two with the next. Some of my coworkers became fast friends, as others did when I switched over to the carrier side. Mostly I was happy with whatever position I held. I remember two times I applied for a different job within the company, but I was advised that my skillset was not a “good fit” with the target position or I received an equally painful explanation. Being rejected is always difficult.
However, something better came along from external sources. That is, I was offered a change rather than having to ask for it. In one of those situations, the job I was handed provided opportunities for learning and development that I would not have had in the applied-for positions. It was better than either job I thought I wanted. Every choice we make, or is made for us, changes the end of the story. And how many times have any of us asked ourselves, “How will this affect the trajectory of my life?” Probably not often.
There is no future in looking back and grieving over what happened, or what didn’t happen that you desperately desired. How do you know which falling Jenga block is shifting you to a spur, working like a railroad switch, and that one movement changes everything that follows?
Humans don’t have methods to change the past. We can forgive, make amends, or change our current paths, but we can’t backspace. Prior actions impact the future. You can pivot to modify results, but you can’t change what’s already happened. It’s probably just as well since we are not clairvoyant. How would we be in a position to reconstruct any piece of our lives without potentially making it worse – for either ourselves or someone else?
Every person experiences highs and lows if they live long enough to know the meaning of those words. I believe that if I hadn’t had my share of both good and bad, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I don’t think I’d want to bet that an alternate version of me would be happier than I am now. Maybe I just got lucky when the dominoes fell.
You?
Ah, the eternal questions surrounding the twists and turns of life and the decisions we make! These are great fodder for the books authors write and for the counseling many receive (or should receive). My life was profoundly changed by one comment from a family friend when I was in high school (“You should be an engineer!”) and by my much later decision to accept a job offer at an airport. We cannot know how our lives will change as the years go by, but it’s a fascinating topic to consider.
Glad you received good advice. Could have been worse, for sure.
I have thought about my past and often wondered about different outcomes in my life. The what ifs?
For instance, what if I hadn’t accepted an invitation to spend the day at a motorcycle race with a guy who introduced me to his co-worker Mark?
However, I do believe it is all God’s plan. He has a purpose and is with us every step of the way.
Well, there’s a story I haven’t heard yet. He does have a purpose, and our job is to stay out of His way. Not sure we always do that.
Had a couple mechanics who did some welding on a production line on Sunday but failed to do the required 2 hour watch after doing “hot” work. After they left, a production line caught on fire. Our Documentation manager was working Sunday morning because his birthday was on Friday and he skipped his planned Saturday morning work due to his hang over. He was the only person in the plant and had to pee near a window facing the manufacturing area…..his hangover and bladder saved the plant from burning to the ground.
Well, there’s a story! I never knew a hangover could lead to a happy ending. Hmm.