surviving 2 thriving

“You can’t go home again.”
Thomas Wolfe

The world is full of ruins, some thousands of years old. In October of 2006, city ruins from China’s first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty (2100 BC-1600 BC) were discovered in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The city is nearly 4,000 years old and three quarters of the ruins have been unearthed including residential houses, cellars and stone coffins.

Travel the world and you will see evidence of most all of history’s civilizations. Castles where kings and lords ruled in the Dark Ages still stand. The pyramids of Egypt are tombs of the all powerful leaders of the ancient empire. In Greece, ruins remain of great cities that no longer exist.

There really is no denying it. Once something happens to you that causes you to be a survivor, to build that fortress, nothing is ever the same again. There will always be some “ruins” of your walls no matter how successful you may be at moving on with your life.

In a sense, these ruins are the wounds and scars that show you have been in the battle and are still standing. So, in some ways, it’s a good thing. The events of your life—good and bad—shape you into who you are. Change one thing, however small, and your whole life would be different.

I saw an interesting movie on television called A Sound of Thunder (2005) about how one small thing changed in pre-historic times could change everything we now know. It’s an interesting theory. In the story, scientists had discovered a way to travel back in time. Some corporate types seized the opportunity and developed a travel package that allowed people, for a sizeable fee of course, to go back in time to hunt and kill a giant dinosaur. The travel company had discovered in the past, a specific dinosaur that was about to die in the tar pits anyway, and that dinosaur was the one, and only one, that could be hunted and killed, thus ensuring no changes in the timeline. Or at least, that was the plan.

On one trip, however, one of the great hunters unwittingly stepped on a lowly butterfly. Somehow, killing that butterfly changed the entire evolution of the planet, and things got scary when they returned to the present with various horrific creatures ruling the earth instead of mankind.

The point is simply this: everything that has happened in your life has brought you to your present situation. If you have kids, for example, change one seemingly small thing in your past and you might have triggered events that would not have lead to you having those kids.

Some people might surmise that their lives would be much improved if they could go back and change the thing that haunts them. But that isn’t necessarily so. Sure, we all would like to go back and make some different choices. No one has a perfect score in the wise decision category. But there is a problem with regrets. The thing you regret the most, if it could be changed, could very well cost you that which you love the most.