Many years ago, I lived just outside Boston, USA. At the time the fastest way to drive from the north to downtown was on Interstate 93, part of which was on an elevated overpass.1 It was a busy road and sometimes there were traffic jams.
There was an alternative route that took longer, but it was usually clear of traffic. When you got to a certain point on the overpass you could sometimes see if there was a tailback starting (the road turned so it was hard to judge), and if so, take the alternative route. But you only had a couple of minutes to evaluate and decide to stay on the overpass or take the exit.
Of course, if you got stuck in traffic on the overpass, the alternative route took less time. A little further along the alternative route went under the overpass, allowing you to see the state of the traffic on the road you had just left. You could see if you had made the correct decision because traffic was backed up on the overpass, or if traffic was running freely and you now had an un-necessarily longer journey.
It is the only time in my life that I have been able to clearly see what would have happened if I had made a different decision. Usually, we make a choice and move on. We have no idea of what might have happened if we had made a different decision and followed a different path2.
Have you ever wondered what might have been? Not that you have regretted any decision, but perhaps you could have taken a very different path.
What choice did you have, and what might that path not taken have looked like?
Historical twists and turns provide plenty of “what if” opportunities. It is a sobering thought that if there had been better, more humane peace negotiations after World War I, it may have led to less resentment in Germany. The great depression that followed may not have been so severe, giving Hitler fewer opportunities to take power, or to persuade the Germans to go to war again. Imagine a world without the devastation of World War II.
The risks were clearly understood at the time. In 1919, during peace negotiations, John Maynard Keynes the English economist and philosopher said;
“Moved by insane delusion and reckless self-regard, the German people overturned the foundations on which we all lived and built. But the spokesmen of the French and British peoples have run the risk of completing the ruin, which Germany began, by a Peace which, if it is carried into effect, must impair yet further, when it might have restored, the delicate, complicated organisation, already shaken and broken by war, through which alone the European peoples can employ themselves and live.”
The road not taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
The Big Dig was a mega-project in Boston, USA that re-routed the elevated overpass of Interstate 93 that cut across Boston into the O'Neill Tunnel, and built the Ted Williams Tunnel to extend Interstate 90 to Logan International Airport. It was the most expensive highway project in the USA. The project was completed in 2006.
Writing a memoir does not have to only contain what you did. What you did not do, and why you made those choices is very illuminating, and can tell a lot about you. My father became a doctor because his working class parents thought it was an amazing opportunity. But he had wanted to become an artist.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. It beautifully captured the essence of life's crossroads and the "what if" moments we all ponder. Your descriptions and reflective tone make it both engaging and thought-provoking.Brilliant.
I love this question and also the ramifications possible if one were to change their personal history, and make a different choice. Would I? I don't know.