Today was rough.
After the Eagles lost the Super Bowl last night, I packed up the Eagles-themed cupcakes and leftover Miller Lites I brought to my friend’s party and walked back to my house in South Philly.
The scene was depressing.
A light rain fell from the sky, the same way it does in movies after a heartbreak. People walked home, heads down, quiet, sullen. I put my Airpods in and sought relief from a little music.
I was sad, not because the Eagles lost, but because I knew that I had been stripped of a chance to celebrate with my city. Losing meant that people would not storm Broad Street. It meant that I would not see my friends and neighbors in the streets. It meant that it was time to go home. Party’s over.
It’s odd when there’s so much anticipation building up to something only for it to not exist. It’s as if two nights played out in parallel last night, except one of them never really happened.
All day, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around that phenomenon. However, I’ve learned that you will drive yourself crazy playing out “what ifs” in your mind.
After the game, my friends and I went out to a bar for a drink, and then we went back to my house to watch a movie. After some deliberation, we decided to watch The Butterfly Effect.
For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a quick synopsis from Wikipedia: “Kutcher plays 20-year-old college student Evan Treborn, who experiences blackouts and memory loss throughout his childhood. Later, in his 20s, Evan finds he can travel back in time to inhabit his former self during those periods of blackout, with his adult mind inhabiting his younger body. He attempts to change the present by changing his past behaviors and setting things right for himself and his friends, but there are unintended consequences for all.”
How ironic.
It wasn’t until this evening—after spending the entire day wishing the Eagles had won—that I made the connection between the game and the movie.
Here I was thinking about a “what if” scenario if the Eagles won the Super Bowl and feeling sad that I was stripped of that opportunity. Yet the movie makes the point that even if you could go back in time to change the outcome of things, there will still be unintended consequences, some of which may not be more favorable.
Oddly enough, this gave me some peace of mind. As much as it hurts to see your team lose, I felt solace in knowing that maybe this is for the best. Maybe there are better things yet to come. Or maybe I would have had some freak accident if I went to Broad Street last night if the Eagles won.
For those wondering, The Butterfly Effect film gets its name from Edward Norton Lorenz’s work in chaos theory. The butterfly effect is a metaphor for events that may seem small or inconsequential but have an outsized impact on the reality of events that occur. For example, if a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, then it could cause a tornado in Texas.
This begs the question — what are the odds that I decided to watch The Butterfly Effect after the game last night?
All I know is that the universe has a funny way of communicating these lessons.
So regardless of how much something might suck in the moment, you better listen to whatever the universe is trying to tell you.
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Today was rough.
After the Eagles lost the Super Bowl last night, I packed up the Eagles-themed cupcakes and leftover Miller Lites I brought to my friend’s party and walked back to my house in South Philly.
The scene was depressing.
A light rain fell from the sky, the same way it does in movies after a heartbreak. People walked home, heads down, quiet, sullen. I put my Airpods in and sought relief from a little music.
I was sad, not because the Eagles lost, but because I knew that I had been stripped of a chance to celebrate with my city. Losing meant that people would not storm Broad Street. It meant that I would not see my friends and neighbors in the streets. It meant that it was time to go home. Party’s over.
It’s odd when there’s so much anticipation building up to something only for it to not exist. It’s as if two nights played out in parallel last night, except one of them never really happened.
All day, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around that phenomenon. However, I’ve learned that you will drive yourself crazy playing out “what ifs” in your mind.
After the game, my friends and I went out to a bar for a drink, and then we went back to my house to watch a movie. After some deliberation, we decided to watch The Butterfly Effect.
For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a quick synopsis from Wikipedia: “Kutcher plays 20-year-old college student Evan Treborn, who experiences blackouts and memory loss throughout his childhood. Later, in his 20s, Evan finds he can travel back in time to inhabit his former self during those periods of blackout, with his adult mind inhabiting his younger body. He attempts to change the present by changing his past behaviors and setting things right for himself and his friends, but there are unintended consequences for all.”
How ironic.
It wasn’t until this evening—after spending the entire day wishing the Eagles had won—that I made the connection between the game and the movie.
Here I was thinking about a “what if” scenario if the Eagles won the Super Bowl and feeling sad that I was stripped of that opportunity. Yet the movie makes the point that even if you could go back in time to change the outcome of things, there will still be unintended consequences, some of which may not be more favorable.
Oddly enough, this gave me some peace of mind. As much as it hurts to see your team lose, I felt solace in knowing that maybe this is for the best. Maybe there are better things yet to come. Or maybe I would have had some freak accident if I went to Broad Street last night if the Eagles won.
For those wondering, The Butterfly Effect film gets its name from Edward Norton Lorenz’s work in chaos theory. The butterfly effect is a metaphor for events that may seem small or inconsequential but have an outsized impact on the reality of events that occur. For example, if a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, then it could cause a tornado in Texas.
This begs the question — what are the odds that I decided to watch The Butterfly Effect after the game last night?
All I know is that the universe has a funny way of communicating these lessons.
So regardless of how much something might suck in the moment, you better listen to whatever the universe is trying to tell you.
