Co-incidence

"If you could look into the future and see something of your choosing, literally anything, would you? If yes, what?"

"You can't change anything about what you see, only know about it."

USHW and I do swap these kinds of questions every now again, and they're fun and thought-provoking.

This time, though, I had a few hours and several pints of beer to ponder the question.

Rather than answer the question, I got a bit pedantic.

I think your assertion has a flaw, in that it relies on you knowing your future, if you're talking about specific events, rather than "show me on my birthday when I am 55".

From what I gather, you're asking "What happens when..." rather than "What happens if...". The latter can be changed because it's an unknown. The former is a pre-decided course of action.

"What happens when I try to sleep with CH" assumes I will inevitably try to fuck CH and shows me the outcome.

"What happens if I try to sleep with CH" shows what happens in a possible future and gives me the chance to decide.

Now, in the above scenario, I may never fuck CH under any circumstances, but in the same vein, knowing the future around that once thing allows me the choice of taking a course of action.

Why I picked having sex with CH out of the air to prove a point is beyond me... but who did I bump into this morning, completely out of the blue?

Yup... CH.

It was nice to see her again, but she trotted out the same old nonsense. If I want to meet her for coffee (drinks now completely off the table), then I have to go way out of my way to do it.

For a close friend, I'd do it. That's not CH any more.

And the question itself from USHW reminded me of one of my favourite books - Replay by Ken Grimwood where a guy "dies" during a massive heart attack and comes to in his own teenage body, but with all his memories of his previous life intact. I'd like to read that again... it's in my bookshelf somewhere.