Posted 4/25/2022 2:42 PM (GMT 0)
I got the idea for this thread from reading something the other day about the notion of "alternate history." That is, the practice of conceiving of and discussing what history would have been like if certain events had never occurred, of if events that never occurred, had.
What if the South had won the Civil War? What if JFK had never been assassinated?
I had always assumed, wrongly it would seem, that mainstream historians frowned upon spending time discussing such alternate histories, that they considered them frivolous, and a waste of time.
However, I have been reading to my surprise that a good many respected historians actually encourage this activity, on the grounds that constructing alternate histories requires the same kinds of factual analyses and interpretation of data that the appreciation of actual history does, thus giving us a different but informative view of the processes of history, so they approve of it.
So what if we apply the principles of alternate history construction to another form of history, namely your history!
Suppose you could go back in time to that day, for most of us probably years ago, when you were diagnosed with cancer, and imagine that that day never happened!
So that from that day up to the present, your life went a different, cancer-free, path! An alternate history! An alternate reality!
How do you think your life would have been different? What would have happened in that alternate world that hasn't happened in this one?
Would you have traveled more? Had more or different hobbies? Tried a different career? Had a different attitude toward life and living in general?
For one thing, there wouldn't have been all those doctors' appointments and exams and treatments of course, for the cancer you never had in that other world, so the time spent there would have been spent on other things. But what other things?
Well, for example
1. Abstraction vs. reality. Cancer would most likely just have been something in a medical textbook to you in that other world, more a passing thought, not what it has been here.
2. Time repurposed. As noted, time spent here on cancer could have gone to hobbies, vacations, more time with loved ones, etc.
3. Relationships with friends, relatives and coworkers. All those people wouldn't have associated you with cancer. You would have been just another friend or relative.
4. Thinking of health in general. In a cancer-free alternate reality, contemplating health concerns might have taken a back seat to other, less serious matters.
5. Getting affairs in order. Maybe getting wills, powers of attorney etc. done would have been postponed. Not a good thing, but perhaps more likely in a cancer-free world.
6. Just being more carefree. As in see (1) above.
What else?
But perhaps this could be more than just an imaginary exercise. It would seem possible that those good things, cancer-free things, that you think might have happened only in that alternate history might still be obtainable for you now, in our real world. And you can realize this by constructing your alternate, cancer-free, reality, and learning from it, learning what might have been, and what could still be for you here and now.
Perhaps PCa has in fact only been a distraction, and those good things can still be had here!
Perhaps that's worth a thought!
So tell us how you think your life might have gone in that other reality, but doing so with an eye to how the good things that you thought might have gone on only there are still available to you here!