MPKGD “What” and “If” are two of the most dangerous words put together.
I got this idea for a blog after watching Letters to Juliet starring Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Egan, and Gael Garcia Bernal for the millionth time. I later found out that this was based on a book with the same title.
Towards the end of the movie was a speech Sophie, Seyfried’s character, addressed to the newlyweds. It mentions the two words: What and If, as part of a letter Sophie wrote to Claire, Redgrave’s character.
The speech goes as such:
“Claire: Dear Claire,
“What” and “If” are two words as non-threatening as words can be. But put them together side-by-side and they have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life: What if? What if? What if? I don’t know how your story ended but what if what you felt then was true love, then it’s never too late. If it was true then why wouldn’t it be true now? You need only the courage to follow your heart. I don’t know what love like Juliet’s feels like – love to leave loved ones for, love to cross oceans for but I’d like to believe if I ever were to feel it, that I will have the courage to seize it. And Claire, if you didn’t, I hope one day that you will.
All my love, Juliet”
Scary isn’t it, the regret and heavy load that comes along with those two words? Amongst the treasure trove of literary wisdom the book and the movie have produced this has obviously the one that struck me the most.
This letter goes beyond the what-ifs of love as the letter from Juliet addresses. There are a lot of what-ifs in life and most of the time we are haunted by the fact.
Imagine that: continually looking back and imagining what if you could have done things a little bit differently, where could you have been now? What life will that path have taken you if you just chose something else? Will that life be better or will it be worse than what you have now?
I guess since it just now exists in our imagination, we would never know. And we could just about leave it there and live in the now and that is not a bad thing.
We are here for a reason and the reason might be because we just must be in this place and time.
However, as Sophie has written to Claire on behalf of Juliet, if what was true before then it’s never too late to begin again. “You need only the courage to follow your heart”.
Definitely not easy to begin again after you have lived a life far different from what you have expected and veered far from it. But it is definitely worth a try. If you have the love for that something or that someone to cross oceans for, then you must have the courage to seize it.
Saying what-if over and over again without trying to see the other side of that what-if or going for what may have happened, then you will never know; it will just remain as it was: a burdensome memory that disallows you from moving forward.
It was true before, then why can’t it be true now? If it has always been true then it will realize in one way or another; it will come in ways unexpected. So we keep moving forward.
In any way, the current life you live now is a what-if scenario realized.
