Message in a Bottle - Back to the Future

Messages come in many forms but my favourite are those anonymous notes that brave the seas (or the web).  There's something cathartic about releasing those words into the great unknown, hoping they might reach the person they were meant for.  The Message in a Bottle series gives readers (and myself) that chance.  I am so proud of everyone that is brave enough to give it a try, and am equally humbled by the fact you trust me to deliver your message.

Apologies for the sloppiness of the posts over the past couple of weeks!  I've been meaning to go back and fix them but time keeps slipping away from me.  In an attempt to break out of this funk, I'm relying on someone else's words to inspire some better ones from myself.  Thank you to M for sending this in a couple of weeks ago!  It never fails to amaze me when I receive an email from a total stranger who felt a strong enough connection to write in.  What's even more amazing is when the subject at hand is something I can totally relate to.  Although we each have our own struggles and deal with them in our own ways, it's comforting to know we aren't struggling alone.

I watched Back to the Future the other day and thought, "what would I change if I could go back in time?"  I honestly don't know if I would do everything the same or completely different.  Then I started thinking about movies where the hero gets transported back in time or into the body of a younger person or something equally impossible and gets a second chance to change their life.  It's easy to look back and say what you would've done if you only knew what you know now.  It's even easier to look at someone else's life and tell them what you think would work best.  It's like you* said a while back about how it's easier to figure out someone else's life because you have some perspective.  But it makes me wonder - how do you decide whether to use that perspective for good or evil?  When you have a good idea of how things could turn out, how do you stop yourself from making sure things unfold the way you WANT them to?  It must be nice to have that sense of certainty but I think it'd also feel a little lonely.

*I'm giving myself a moment to let this sink it - this person not only reads my blog, but actually remembers things and references it in a letter to me!

M brings up a very good point - when you've figured out how to use all the strings, do you set yourself above everyone else and play puppet master?  I'm a meddler so it's in my nature to use my own experiences to help others avoid the troubles I've faced.  One thing I try to keep in mind though is that if I didn't overcome the problems I faced in the past, I never would've learned how to help others today.  It's a fine line to walk between helping and hindering, but the best way to stay on the right side is by using your ears, not your mouth.  Sometimes, just letting someone talk it out is enough to help them find the answer they were looking for.

There's a danger in looking back as we tend to focus solely on the good and we gloss over or even shut out the bad completely.  While M might not know if they would re-write the past, I can safely say I wouldn't.  Without the good and the bad, I wouldn't be where I am today which would be sad since here is pretty good these days.