what if...?

a song's refrain often goes around my head:
'what if I had never let you go? would you be the one I'm used to know ? ... If we could only turn back time... but I guess, we'll never know'

What would I give for being able to turn back time!
Who hasn't ever had this thought? Everyone knows this situation: You see the outcome of some decisions you have taken, things you did or should have done - and you wish you still could change anything.
Sometimes these are only minor things: 'Why have I searched for my umbrella so long? I should have known I'd be late!'
Other things are about life and death: 'If I had stopped at the red streetlight, the guy in the other car would still be alive!'
Often one had been so close to do what later turned out to be the right thing. The decisions often even didn't mean anything at that time and were taken randomly, what makes it only more frustrating afterwards.
Unfortunately, turning back the time propably wouldn't change anything, even if it was possible. If one takes a look at the objective and logical side of it, all events had to happen exactly the way as they did before. Although a decision may be taken without thinking, it's always subconsciously influenced by conditions, surroundings and personal experiences. And those would always be the same again. In the past, you have been different. The regrets come afterwards when you change, learn or simply see the consequences. Turning back time would only make things happen once again, without a change.
Then, if all this is about the changed and wiser self, what about not turning back the time, but making yourself travel back in time to talk to your younger self and prevent things from happening? I know, this phantasy is old sci-fi-stuff and many others have already spend many thoughts on it.
To sum them up: you would cause a lot of chaos in a time you don't belong - possibly more than you could help with your knowldge offuture events. Only watch 'Back to the Future', the all-time classic about time-travelling, and you'll know what I mean when I say, that this might not be a good idea.
What I favour is equally impossible as the other ideas but, to me, seems easier, smaller and bearing less risks than e.g. travelling in time.
For most events it would be sufficient if one coul only send a note to one's younger self in the past. Just a single sentence could change so much, something like 'Don't drink tonight' or 'Take the car'.
If this was possible, sending one-sentence-messages intotthe past, even if you could only deliver them to no other person but you and considering that you might not obey yourself, this technology still would have changed the history of the world. What would be different today if people could reverse their actions! When one tries to imagine that, even that 'small' thing would be very, very complex in its consequences.
And maybe it's good that time has something secure - what has happened has happened and cannot be changed by any human, how hard he may wish he could. We humans have in some ways already too much power to influence our present. To be able to change the past too would be far too much - and it would also remove the necessity to learn from it.

 

this picture reminds me of a wonderful journey, but also drags the thought to my mind that if I hadn't decided to go to town that afternoon, I wouldn't have missed the fun the others had at the beach... but I guess, I'll never know...