James Wood writes wonderful essays and in his book Serious Noticing spends time on the author Herman Melville of Moby Dick fame and reflects on how the character Ishmael uses the phrase, “Ifs eternally.”
The idea Melville was exploring through his character was that we can look back at our life at any point and identify an endless number of “ifs.” In other words, it is easy to begin sentences that begin with, “if only….”
But a fascinating thing occurred when I read that phrase, I took it in the opposite direction.
I saw the phrase as sparking the concept of endless possibility rather than regret. Yes, “ifs” can point us backwards, but they can also steer our gaze to the future. Meaning, we can choose to start a sentence with “what if…” instead of “if only….” And if we do that, there are “ifs eternal.”
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