Just watched The Family Man, an intriguing film with Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni about the prospect of being able to glimpse one's life if a difference path is followed.
Jack and Kate are madly in love, but he chooses a career on Wall Street over a life with her.
Fastforward 13 years, and an incident in a corner store introduces a god-like character, who allows Jack a "glimpse" of what his life would have been like if he'd chosen Kate.
So suddenly, on Christmas Day, he wakes up in an unfamiliar house in New Jersey with two kids and a dog, and soon discovers he works at his father in law's tyre store and has no money for the finer things in life.
It's a far cry from the fine dining and tailored suits of his other world, but eventually (what kind of movie would we have otherwise) he comes to realise the value of the home and the family they have made together.
Return god-like figure, signalling reluctant return to no longer fulfilling Wall Street life.
Of course, the alternative life was not "real" as he discovers when his path does again cross with Kate, a high-flying single lawyer off to head up a firm in Paris, offering him "closure" by returning a box of his long-forgotten things.
It gets one thinking about the what ifs.
What if I had studied medicine?
What if I hadn't become a journalist?
What if I hadn't met Stefan?
What if I had got the job at Cleo I applied for early on in our relationship?
What if I hadn't stopped looking for jobs in Sydney?
What if I had practised law?
What if we'd had a third child?
Not simple regrets, but decisions that become definitive moments in our lives. Imagine being able to see the other path before deciding. Would we decide differently? Would it make the decision easier?
If only I could see the paths ahead now. What if I don't sell my house? What if I do leave the Herald? What if I never wear high heels again?
No crystal ball. Only faith and hope. And wild imagination.
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