Who Says You Can't
Go Back?
by Don Drewniak
For those not
familiar with the time-honored game of golf, a
mulligan refers to being allowed to get a second
shot to replace a bad one. It is most often
limited to one per eighteen holes, and usually is
employed by weekend golfers.
Before we
proceed any further, there is a case wherein a
golfer who took a mulligan immediately regretted
his doing so. It happened in 1994 on a New Jersey
golf course when a co-founder of a large American
company took a mulligan and proceeded to hit
another golfer, knocking him unconscious. The
errant mulligan resulted in a lawsuit.
Ah, but we
have a much more serious mulligan to discuss. One
that may have already been used by you and
countless other humans on our tiny rock called
Earth. This is a mulligan that perhaps all human
beings have lurking within their quantum
consciousness. A one-time ticket to travel back
in time and re-do one particular action that one
regrets.
You are at a
local pub and decide to have two or three drinks
beyond your normal number. The result: you slam
into a tree or a runaway aardvark and find
yourself confined to a wheelchair for life. A
mulligan to the rescue.
You promised
yourself going into high school that you would
pay attention in all classes, take notes,
complete homework assignments and study for tests.
Instead, you spent your spare time in a pool hall
and ultimately failed to graduate. A mulligan to
the rescue.
You find
yourself addicted to donuts. First it was one
donut with coffee from a local donut emporium on
the way to work. Then two. Then three. Then a
half dozen that disappeared before the morning
coffee break. Finally, it was a dozen, the second
half becoming your lunch. The result? Three
hundred pounds. A mulligan to the rescue.
You spot a
stock of a struggling company that has been
dropping steadily and has plummeted to under five
dollars per share. A good time to buy? You pass.
The company rights the ship and is trading at two
hundred a share. A mulligan to the rescue.
You attend a
hometown fraternity party with your college
sweetheart. She spots a small group of
girlfriends and wanders over to them. Meanwhile,
the head cheerleader from your high school days
comes and gives you a hug. Ten minutes later find
you are alone with her in a second-floor bedroom.
When you emerge from the room, your sweetheart is
standing in the hallway. End of relationship. A
mulligan to the rescue.
Or, you are a
female who goes to a fraternity party with your
college sweetheart. He disappears to have a few
beers with the guys. A handsome guy who was
captain of your high basketball team greets you
and a few minutes later you are upstairs. A
mulligan to the rescue.
Think back to
the bad decisions or poor choices you may have
made over the course of your life. Is there one
you would erase with a mulligan?
If you said
yes, these are the parameters. You travel back to
the moment of the regretted decision. If you
choose a different path; for example, you tell
the cheerleader, “It has been great talking
to you,” give her a brief kiss on a cheek
and rejoin your sweetheart, the memory of the
life you lived after that encounter is erased. It’s
a total re-do.
But wait.
There may be more.
There is the
possibility that our universe is but one in a
multiverse; that is, an infinite number of
universes. If that is the case, then there has to
be an infinite number of possibilities. Ergo, we
would not only be able to exercise a single
mulligan, but a mulligan would automatically be
created every time we make a decision, even if it
appears to be insignificant.
Addendum: I
have received queries from those in need of three,
ten, 100, 600 mulligans. Not necessary. One need
only to travel back to the earliest event to
which you would like to use your mulligan. As
soon as it goes into effect, all of your other
regretted happenings would vanish. Of course,
there would be no guarantee that you wouldn’t
make a similar number of new mistakes.
Addendum: If
we do exist in a multiverse, then the odds are
that we are not the original “us.” We
would most likely be the creation of a decision
made by another one of us sometime in the past.
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