What If?

by Carrie Pålsson

What if? Those two little words pose a big question that can encompass anything a person can dare to imagine. What if we could teleport? What if we all had flying beds? What if aliens land tomorrow? What if I hadn't become an English teacher? What if I had never met my husband? What if people had to take a parenting test before they could conceive? What if we could find a solution all the troubles in the world? What if someone found a cure for cancer?

The possibilities are endless, both positive and negative. I could sit around all day and speculate on "what ifs" of life. I often wonder about the parallel universe theory. How many "copies" of me are out there? What are they doing? Are they happy? Then I shake my head and try to focus on reality.

But it's tough. The question "what if?" lingers in my mind and I'm drawn to the next outrageous possibility. What if I could adopt a house full of homeless children and make their lives a little brighter? Then realism sets in, and I know I would have to be settled before I even attempt to adopt one homeless child, much less a whole house full of them.

My mind spins out of control and I find myself fantasizing about a better world one minute, then fearing a worst-case scenario the next. Perhaps I read too much?

I know I'm not alone in this habitual fascination with the unlikely. Why do we do this to ourselves? Is it possible that life would be simpler if we worried only about the present instead of agonizing over the past and fretting about the future? I would probably be a lot more productive if I dealt in reality a little more often. Sure, we need to have goals, but do I really need to spend energy making an itemized list of exactly what I'll buy when I win the big lotto jackpot that I never even bought tickets for?

I suppose it all comes down to balance. I know people who have zero imagination and they bore me to tears. They look at me like I'm nuts when I present my dream of owning a flying bed (it'd have a big climate control bubble around it so I'd always be flying in comfort and safety!). They slowly back away when I enthusiastically declare that some sort of enforced birth control--injections or something in the water?--for all teenagers would greatly reduce the number of teen pregnancies. Maybe I am nuts.

On the other hand, I've met folks who blow me away with their "what ifs." They are completely out of touch with reality and can't function for fear that the government is tracking them or the aliens have been probing them. Thus the need for balance. Imagination has a place in our lives as long as we recognize the thin line between fact and fiction.

Of course, without "what ifs" we wouldn't have dreams and dreams are one of the most important things in our history and future. How far would we have gotten if someone didn't dream of warmth and figure out how to light a fire? Or if generations of people hadn't asked "What if we could fly?" and built an airplane? "What if" opens up whole new worlds.

In this issue we explore the question "What If" from the romantic to the ordinary. Brenda Ponnay (better known as Secret Agent Josephine) talks about the possibility of pregnancy, Julie Miller explores what the world would be like if we didn't judge each other, and Beverly Tjerngren shares her meeting with a guy she met on the Internet. As usual, there's much, much more in this issue as well. Read and enjoy!