Speculation Replication

To be or not to be?

That is the question.

Or is that the question?

Can you have one without the other?

Is it a less than perfect day if you have the

Peanut butter without the jelly.

Soap without the water.

Food without soil.

Cornelia sat under a tree while contemplating whether or not total happiness exists. Complete perfection exists. Can perfection be replicated? Or is it mere desire that drives and pulls the wagon?

The perfect apple.

The perfect sunny day.

The perfect rainy day.

Similarities exist for a reason. Memories come, memories go. Recollections may vary (QE) One must be as honest as can be, Right? Ask themself, “What is the goal?”……..

Is anything, does anything ever turn out to be the same? Even if and when we test the theories of relativity and theories of repeat, recreate, duplicate, complicate, repeat, recreate, duplicate, complicate to boost the confidence and assurances of our lives.

What are our expectations?

To boost confidence in life’s results, in one’s results in a life well lived? To live with servitude and forgiveness or resentment and vengeance? To ensure the outcome that we want? We wonder, what is the best plan of attack? Control? To live routinely, rigidly? Or free spirited and “loosey goosey”

A life lived, “by the book”…. lived “willy nilly”. One must look back and question the variables. Of their life. Of what a life well lived may look like. What it is. Can be.

It was time for inspiration, so Cornelia arose and walked quietly to another tree, a majestic tree and slowly sat down to contemplate. The leaves blew in the wind.

She recalled a poem, a soliloquy she once learned in Literature class—in fact, as it popped into her head the perfect moment she thought… coincidence or extra terrestrially, deja vu—ly timed….

”To be or not to be”. The opening phrase of a speech given by Prince Hamlet in the so called “nunnery scene” of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. In the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, weighing the pain and unfairness of life against the alternative, which might be worse. (wk).

Cornelia recalled this passage as she had memorized the text word for word. Was it a poem she memorized because she wanted to control her destiny? Was it an overwhelming desire? As humans, do we desire to only replicate “the good parts”, the “good ones?” As she sat quietly and speculated about life and the desire to repeat only the good parts. She began to mouth the words:

”To be or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,

And by opposing end : to die, to sleep

No more; and by a sleep, to say we end

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks

That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,

To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye,

there’s the rub ***(ie: there’s the catch)***

For in that sleep of death, what dreams make come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes Calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,

The Oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s Contumely,

The pangs of disposed Love, the Law’s delay

The insolence of Office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,

When he himself might his Quietus make

With a bare Bodkin? Who would Farrell bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No travelled returns, puzzles the Will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have,

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native Resolution

Is sickles o’er, with the pale cast of

Thought,

And enterprises of great pitch and moment,

With this regard their Currents turn awry,

And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia? Nymph, in thy Orisons

Be all my sins remember’d (wk)

Be all my sins remember’d.

How sad. How dismal.

Patterns. Have a way of repeating themselves. However, it is usually not a “slam dunk” that patterns will repeat, replicate, recreate, complicate. Our lives. All lives.

Fortunately.

And.

Unfortunately.

How arrogant we must be to think we have such power over the outcome. But, wait, before we take too negative a view point. Practice may not make perfect, but isn’t better, well,

Better?! To strive to be better is better😄 Debatable for sure?

As mentioned earlier, the variables matter. The variables influence the this or the that. Cornelia pondered further. Sometimes the differences might not be immediately clear. What one person dissects and discerns is a part of the process. One might ignore completely because it “doesn’t fit”…….

The process of life.🫣. And peaking ahead………It is not fair. Is it? To check the back of the book for the answers……what fun is that, what learning occurs?

In the interest of strengthening the outcome of any individual and their existence, Daniel Kahneman opined that studies are often too vague in describing methods used. Replications should involve the authors of the original studies in order to more carefully mirror methods and procedures used in the original research.(dk)

Humans. Are as diverse as the leaves on a tree, Cornelia though as she looked up. No two are alike. Our thoughts and behaviors subtlety and always change. Just as the leaves do when they blow in the wind. Falsely positive or falsely negatively. By and with diverse methods, conditions, and most of all moving with the beautiful differences.

Why then do we search for the one “thing” that we think will “make our day”. Is it for a quick buzz or rush? A numb. Is the answer blowin’ in the wind. Do we really need to know what the catch is? Who the catch is? Who dropped the ball. Who made the catch? What was the catch of the day? Who was the catch of the day?

On and on and on and on and on. Just as leaves blow in the wind. We have new and endless possibilities to free ourselves and others of the idea we blew a chance at the catch. Lost the ball. Dropped the ball. You get the point. Even if and when we think there is more to be had, perchance all we needed was and is to be content. With the here. With the now. The best way to get there from here.

Make it better.

The past cannot be changed. Replication is often not the best answer and maybe not the worst answer. Speculating on the “what ifs” generally never does any good either. Why not aspire to be in the present. Most likely, most variably, may be the best place to exist.

Why not give it a try. 🤔