Living Forever For One Day

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

From freeimages.com

If you had to relive one day for all eternity and you would never age, what day would you choose?

Movies like Groundhog Day and more recently, Miss Peregrines School for Peculiar Children remind me of this impossible premise, so chose one day you feel you could relive forever.

If you chose a day when you are young, you will never grow up. What age would you prefer?

If you choose a day in summer, you’ll never ski again or see autumn in anything but pictures.

IMG_0659

From freeimages.com

If you choose a holiday, would you get sick of it? We all know someone who seems they would not: the neighbors who overdo it on the Christmas lights, people who transform their houses into freak shows at Halloween.

If you must wake up in the same location everyday, you could only take day trips. Would even the most reclusive homebody be able to do it forever?

As long as you can buy and keep your belongings from day to day, you could create your favorite art form forever.

Would you bring other people with you? Would you tire of them? Would they be happy being stuck at their age or their location?

IMGP8025

From freeimages.com

The upsides might be:

You could read an infinite number of books or watch new movies each day, at least up to  the day you chose to inhabit forever.

Deadlines would melt away.

I assume your bank account regenerates too.

For myself, I think I would stay my current age, early thirties, and the day I would choose would be today. Why not? Call in sick to work, write until I wore myself out, buy more food at a local store if I didn’t have it already at home.

Yet would I ever be satisfied if I never moved forward in time? Does an artist or writer gain satisfaction if they never see their work sold or published? Would I get used to it? Would you?

2 responses to “Living Forever For One Day

  1. Living the same day over and over again forever would be a harsh thing to deal with, as you would not see anything advance or grow: anything that is, except for your own memories and experiences. For example, having to watch the children around you just stagnate and never grow would kind of go against everything we expect/experience as humans.

    If an endless day cycle was forced upon you, hopefully, you would be more fortunate than Bill Murray’s character who was stuck in a small town. Imagine if you were in a giant city where you could take any risks, go anywhere or do just about anything with no consequences. Might be pretty shallow, but might make a good story too.

  2. This isn’t something I’d choose! To have one’s surrounding time be static means the inability to improve or to advance plans.

    It’s the antithesis of Pandora. Pandora released humanity’s troubles, but she also released hope. Each day we live has its own troubles, and they can be severe, but, at the end of each day, there’s always the hope that we can improve the next day and the days after. If we’re forced to relive each day, that hope is gone.

    The underlying point in both Groundhog Day and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is that to remain static imposes harsh limits. Bill Murray’s character, Phil, in Groundhog Day is an arrogant unlovable jerk of a weatherman who is doomed to repeat his one day until he reassesses his life and becomes a person that someone else can love — after that, February 3 arrives for him. Similarly, the “peculiar” children in Miss Peregrine’s time loop can’t defeat their nemeses, the hollowgasts, until they leave their time loop.

    (It’s interesting that Phil’s repetitive Groundhog Day differs from Miss Peregrine’s time loop. Phil has no choice; he’s forced to repeat his Groundhog Day until he finally changes himself. On the other hand, Miss Peregrine’s time loop can be left voluntarily, though Miss Peregrine discourages it!)

Leave a comment