What would you do?

If you have not watched the Flash season Finale there is a slight plot spoiler (basically I mention the plot but with no spoilers as to what happens) below so you've been warned....






Okay you were warned.  I won't spoil anything but the plot of the episode is that Doctor Wells give Barry a chance to save his mom and send Wells back to his time.  Throughout the episode Barry had to decide what to do.

If anyone knows my history should know these storylines hit a little close to home.  My dad was in a car accident when I was six and passed away a few days later.  The question of going back in time and changing it is something I have thought about so many times late at night when I couldn't sleep.

Of course that brings up the big time travel paradox doesn't it.  One life doesn't just change my life and that of my families.  Everything would change in that instance.  If Frank Bennett doesn't get in that accident on Lansing Road EVERYTHING is different.  Everything that I am would be different, or could be.

This is the what Barry faces in the episode.  There is also the episode of Doctor Who (and sorry it is from 2005, it isn't a spoiler if it 10 fucking years old) where Rose saves her dad from being killed.  A different outcome (I don't think weird mantis dragons would come) but same idea.  Everything changes.  One life changes EVERYTHING.

So the question is what would you do?  Would you save that loved one knowing that it chances everything or do you keep "the time line"?  I'll be honest, I don't know what I'd do.  I've been through so much that some people point to that moment in time.  That one moment in time.  Had his car gone another 100 yards he wouldn't have gone under the semi.  One moment in time helped forged who I am.  Helped forged who all of you are.  Could you change one of the most important moments in time in your life?

I'm not even talking about going back and killing Hitler or Bin Laden or something like that.  Think about Back to the Future.  One kissed changed everything.  One moment in time.

I've thought about this alot, both the idea of going back and the idea of that one moment in time.  One missed phone call could be the difference between having that love of your life and never seeing her again.  One less drink could mean you're on the wrong plane on a certain September day in 2001 (supposedly Seth McFarlane missed his plane that day because of a hang over).  One moment in time. To go back to Doctor Who one left turn instead of a right turn.  Not taking a day off after 30 days and 164 hours in two weeks and maybe you don't get fired.  One moment.  One split second decision.

So again I ask would you do it?  How do you know what could have been is better than what is? What would I do?  I don't know.  I really don't.  I've thought about this for 30 years.  30 motherfucking years and I don't have an answer.

If the stories we read are anything to go off of nothing good comes from changing the time line. Didn't work out well for Marty for sure.  Rose nearly destroyed the Earth and maybe all of time and space (I don't remember how bad it was going to be).  Lets not forget the wonderful unknown movie Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel.  Nothing good at all!

But it is an interesting question isn't it?  Again I don't know.  To have to watch, like Rose did in Doctor Who, because I was there and wasn't sure, is probably worse than anything.  If I was there, in the moment, I know what I'd do.  I'd do anything to stop it.  But would I go back is the better question I guess.  That I don't know.

I can't say what Barry Allen does, because I don't want to ruin it.  But I am willing to bet you can figure it out because he is the superhero and they almost always make the right decisions.  I am just a man and lets be honest, like most normal mortal humans, I'd probably make the wrong decision...for the right reasons.

I promise I'll try to post a more uplifting blog in the future.  Something funny....with fart jokes....but I guess this pulls the curtain back a bit as to what goes through my mind late at night.  It isn't all fart jokes and thoughts of pretty girls...just mostly

I used to always end my blogs with a quote and I like this quote.  It doesn't quite fit the post but it talks about looking for a better self, which I think is what I'd hope for if I did go back and change any of the "important" moments in time.  A better Gene (which is almost impossible!).  This is from the end of Mad Max:  Fury Road

“Where must we go, we who wander this wasteland, in search of our better selves.”
—  The First History of Man

As always, in the immortal words of Col Henry Blake....Abyssina!