The past is obdurate. As it should be. It would be fantastic if we could change the past or go back and change our mishaps or mistakes. Not fantastic in the 21st century use, often saying something is marvelous, or riveting, but fantastic in the sense that it is nonsense, unfathomable, unobtainable.
If we could change one thing, we would probably change everything. We would most likely, and habitually change every single thing we have done over and over again, even if at the time we thought it was perfect. Things are never perfect, but the past is obdurate. It simply does not want to change, and will work as had as it can do achieve its goal being, well...obdurate.
This whole concept was launched into a full mental thought while reading Stephen King's new novel 11/22/63. He repeats the statement that the past is obdurate, not malevolent, but obdurate, repeatedly. The main character in the book is launched back into 1963 through a rabbit whole to save JFK from assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald, that is . During his travels he encounters many setbacks that confirm the fact that the past simply does NOT want to be changed.
It got me to thinking. If I was to go back in time and invest in Yahoo in 1995, a year before the company went public, what would happen. Would I be able to hop into my Delorean with the nutty professor sporting a Micheal J Fox letterman jacket and everything would be easy as pie, positive-speak? Doubtful. Would someone steal my wallet? Would I miss the cab on the way to meet my accountant or investor. Would my wife, assuming I might have had one, get pregnant, drain me of all my cash on medical bills so that I had nothing to invest, and then go into labor on the IPO date. Probably.
Do things as close to "right" the first time, carry on. Dwelling on the past, and decisions made is not only futile, but insane. What can you do? Find a rabbit hole? Maybe...however you will most likely be faced with an absurd amount of adversity. Why? Because the past is obdurate, and you will most likely enact a butterfly effect that has less that pretty wings. I would even venture to call it the caterpillar effect; a much uglier version that sort of wiggles through peoples lives and leave things hairy.
Invest in a stock, and don't stare at the ticker all day. If you cheat on your spouse/girlfriend, don't pop a xanax and take seven showers to cover yourself up in worry, she'll found out, but you made that decision for a reason, its probably not meant to be. If you take a left turn and you think it should have been a left. Keep driving, find a gas station, ask someone for directions. Stop asking Siri or google maps and engage in some social interaction for once. The problem will be fixed quicker, as opposed to finding a god damn rabbit hole inside your SIM card in the phone you dropped in the bottomless floorboard of the passenger side, and going back in time. Ever realize how hard it is to find something on the floorboard of the car when you drop it? I basically just consider it gone.
The past is obdurate, don't dwell. If you are lucky you will be faced with the same choice in the future, which is much more malleable.
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