What Timeline is this even?

I love writing… usually. I kept a daily blog for years, and while my work as a project lead and a journalist often prevents me from finding time to write essays and make art, I still try to find that time at least once a week.

But it is really hard to find coherent thought in whatever timeline this is that we find ourselves in.

While I’m a firm believer that there is a multi-verse where our universe is just one of many that emerged from some quantum foam, I do not subscribe to the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In that interpretation, each decision we make leads to the universe splitting into a set where each option that could happen did happen. (This interpretation plays a fun role in the cyberpunk fantasy series “WebMage” by Kelly McCullough.) I’ve never put credence in the idea that our reality is just some complex simulation, like a universe sized game of Sim. In my head, given science’s lack of evidence, I have chosen to believe we live in a universe that is one of many, but this is the only one in which you or I exist.

But our current reality is one I and many others (Hi, RachelMaddow) regularly refer to as just one timeline of many; a Timeline 1 versus some Timeline 2 where things are better. There is some comfort in thinking that thanks to a fluke of physics, there is a version of me and of everything around me where things went just a little different and there was just a bit more joy and social justice. I don’t believe it is true; but I wish I could.