Do Over

Would pain be a strong enough deterrent to keep you from being stupid?

What if we could rewind, and try it again? Let’s assume that “do overs” include, when you really screw up, and get yourself killed. Like Bill Murray’s character in “Ground Hog Day“, or Tom Cruises character in “Edge of Tomorrow“.

Would the prospect of pain, stop most people from abusing this…gift? Curse?

Bill Murray’s character doesn’t always die before he starts the day over. Most of the time, it’s just the act of falling asleep. The alarm goes off, and no matter what he did the night before, he wakes up at the beginning of the same day. To escape this cycle, he finally attempts suicide.

Only to wake up in the same bed, on the same day. Definitely a curse.

Tom Cruises character, its death that sends him back to waking up on the same duffel bag in the same staging area. He wakes up with all his memories of the events that led up to dying. In fact, that is a tool used to help defeat the enemy. But the fact that he gets a “do over”, doesn’t take away the fact that he is going to die. Well not at first anyway. After what is probably months, dying is just part of the routine.

But most of his deaths are fairly quick, and the pain is probably brief.

Now back to my original question. If we had “do overs”, and you could go back in time. Not travel back and forth, but just go back to a point in time. If the act of dying gave you a reset, would you take more chances, live life a little more on the edge?

Would you go for it?

When this question first came to me, I was probably thinking about some of the mistakes I made in life, and whether I would “do over” if given the opportunity. Then I started to wonder if the average person knew that death wasn’t the final result, would they take more chances.

Let’s explore both.

I think if we are going to get “do overs” there should be some price to pay. If you tell your boss to fuck off, and it gets you fired. You shouldn’t be able to just flip the switch, and go back to the day before your mouth did you in.

It should be like in a video game. You need to achieve a save point before you can start over at that point.

For example, the idiot that told his boss off. Let’s say he has not gained a promotion since getting the job three years prior. It is a good job, with lots of promise. But now, since he was up way too late, and drank a few too many cheap beers, he woke up late. The guy feels like shit, and his filter is drowning in mass-produced swill. The boss asks why he is late, and the wrong words fly out of his mouth.

He gets fired.

Now to attain a “do over” he would have to find a way to off himself. Since he is suffering from the over indulgence of mass-produced rice beer, it might be easier than any other time. But his save point was the day he received the offer letter for the job he just lost. Three years of his life would have to be played over.