Parallel Universe

Generally speaking, you wouldn’t see me rushing down the bookstore for the latest fiction novel, much less science fiction. I can’t say exactly when this became true. Certainly, it wasn’t always the case.
Ever since reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland when I was six, the possibility of a Parallel Universe has been one of my long time fascinations. L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time was read to our 4th grade class and made a deep impression on me. The first book purchase of my young life was Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are at twelve. It was my favorite until I read the slightly autobiographical novel The Bridge Across Forever by author Richard Bach in my teens. As I recall, Bach theorized that every decision led to one outcome, while not making the decision led to an alternate outcome, thus a parallel. The parallel universe Bach describes is more like a 3-D grid work intersecting at decisions and the life that extends from it. And every life-changing decision births another parallel universe for that being. For me, this was all pleasantly thought provoking. There has always been some new story to keep the flames of curiosity alive.
Over the years, some of my traumatic life events had me pondering how the parallel universe me fared with alternative decisions or events. Like, how does my life look keeping my first-born child? Did I ever choose singing for a living? How might life be changed had I runaway form home at 16, met Jesus sooner, finished college or even, met my second husband first? Sometimes having the outlet to think such things was release enough to get through an emotional snag in my life. Other times, I wished I could leave this life’s baggage somewhere else.
My movie choices reflect a totally different genre. Parallel Universe stories include Millennium, Passion of Mind, Sliding Doors, the now-famous Back to the Future series and more recently, Frequency.
What got me thinking about P.U. again is a recent movie release The Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. The two meet strangely enough through a shared mailbox. She lives in the lake house in the year 2006, he lives there in 2004. How they begin getting to know one another is through letters left in their mailbox, a wormhole in time.
When I was single, trying to meet someone through this venue may have driven me stark raving. Although I often wondered where my beloved was and what he was doing until we actually met, it may have been a comfort to know that he was really out there even if it was in a different time, instead of hoping that he was.
Certainly, the movie isn’t for everyone, as it is based on romance and lacks the sordid sex scenes too prevalent these days. Personally, I found it a welcome deficit. Except for an occasional swear, I would recommend this movie to my friends.
In the P.U. where my other self lives, I wondered if she’s a reader, writer or moviegoer? Or if she’s curling up with a good fiction book—maybe even science fiction?~~