What If?

 

At what age does one begin

to wonder, what if?

Mostly it is about one’s self,

occasionally, though, about

some others.

Of course as a child, one is

focused mainly on themselves,

and has little or no regard for

others or enough personal

history to ask that introspective

question in the first place.

This is typical in the human

psyche of development—I

am, I need, I feel.

So, when do things change,

when do others matter as

much or more than we do?

I’ll leave those matters up to

the psychologically savvy pro-

fessionals.

Here, I am proposing, what if

things in life had turned out

differently? Who, what, where

or why would you be where

you have come to be?

What if you had been born a

different race, in a different

time and place, or to parents

other than the ones you were

born unto?

What if you were never given

the care and nourishment you

needed? What if you had been

abandoned, neglected or abused?

Who or what would you have

become then?

What if you had gone through

school with honors and gotten

a scholarship to college rather

than dropping out of high school

in your junior year? What if you

had never picked up that first

cigarette or taken that first

alcoholic drink as a teenager in

need?

What if you had not partnered

with or married the first man or

woman who facilitated or paid

attention to you, and had children

you were not mature enough to

raise properly?

What if you had not been respon-

sible enough to keep a decent job,

support a family and earn a living

wage? What if no divorce and

starting all over again?

What if? What if? What if? Ever

wonder? So many choices to be

made, so many opportunities

missed or denied. Where on

Earth, when and why would you

be other than you turned out

to be?

Some will claim, the good, the

bad and the ugly, their lot in

life was fatefully meant to be .

Some are grateful stating,

“There but for the grace of

God go I.” Another may relate

to boxer Terry Mallory’s lament

in the movie On the Waterfront,

"I could've been a contender. I

could've been somebody instead

of a bum. And yet others may

recite the proverb, “if ifs and buts

were candy and nuts, we'd all

have a merry Christmas.”

I ask, what if? I want to know,

what say you? What of the

malnourished and war-torn,

refugee child in Syria?

                  -30-

Chris Hanch 2-7-2023