U-0

"There's an old saying that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I guess that can be true. Pain makes you flinch. Your fingers form a fist, and that fist can become tighter and harder with each indignity suffered. Eventually, that fist might even get strong enough to punch down walls. But if you need your hand for something other than violence, if you want to unfurl those fingers to caress a loved one or comfort someone in need and can't, well then, you're broken.

But I think we can agree it's easier to fix things when you understand how they broke."
- Gladstone, 5 Awful Experiences You Never Get Over

Bummer.

I can't believe how impossibly slow I am on a lot of things. Especially today (uhm, Wednesday - this is a Thursday post), of all the days I chose not to be self-entitled.

But let me start from the very beginning. Or the middle - at the point where something, for the lack of a better term, broke.

There is this silly theory of a Universe Zero, which is a superficial (and romanticized) twist on the infinite universes theory in quantum physics. Essentially, Universe Zero is the theoretical setting where all odds fall in favor of certain individuals while everyone else lives out otherwise relatively normal lives. In a way, they've won the cosmic lottery.

Every gamble, every proposal and every blind step always results in a favorable outcome - and conflicts are always resolved. Fairy tales, in essence.

Technically, multiple people can share the same instance of Universe Zero, but they have to live mutually inclusive of each other (for obvious reasons). Otherwise, it misses the whole point, yes?

Sadly, this is where things get murky. A lot of people try to find the Jon to their Celine, while desperately trying to avoid being Greg (or Lea, if you're a lady) and mocking the Michaels (and Cathys) for their worldviews.

A lot of people spend their lives trying to reach this elusive (or is it illusive) state - or at least get closer to it.

Then one day, when we least expect it, we're reminded that Jon and Celine are allegories, at least for most of us. The first (or second, or third - if one is extremely stubborn) time that someone would realize this truth is utterly soul-crushing. Terrifying, even. And sometimes we try too hard to look for how and why something went wrong that we miss the very opportunities to set things straight. Sometimes we are too stuck in the past, or worse, stuck in an improbable future to see where the best things often tend to occur - in the present.

Hence, broken in a sense.

And then we'd realize that there is nothing wrong with being Greg (or Lea) or Michael (or Cathy) because in the end, where it really counts, we tend to end up getting as close to Universe Zero as we rightfully deserve.