Another Earth

In “Another Earth,” young Rhoda Williams has a decision to make: if she wins the contest, and is awarded the chance to visit Earth II, where alternate versions of everyone on Earth live alternate lives, should she go? Should she travel to this alternative world, to meet her alternative self? What would she say? Would her alternative self be living a different life, better than the one Rhoda lives now? Or would this other Rhoda be exactly the same, with the same blood on her hands and guilt in her heart? This is a huge debate throughout the entire movie. As Rhoda tries to figure out how to cope with this guilt and amend the situation of the victims, news analysts and scientists speculate about the benefits and consequences of coming face to face with what could have been. Earth II is, in a way, a manifestation of the possibility of what could have been. What would happen, one commentator asks, if you were to meet this other you, and realize that the other you was better than what you are now? Could you cope with that? Everyone goes through life wondering about the possibilities, of what could have been, if their life had taken a different coarse. What would happen if you land on Earth II and find that your alternative life is just like the one you lead? You’d have to wake up to the reality that, no matter how rough or unbearable your situation is, it was meant to be. Your hopes of a better life, the very possibility of another, better existence, would be destroyed. You’d have to wake up and realize that there is no better way. And even if you do find that another you leads a better life, what then? Either way, you still live in the life you lead now. Nothing changes. You are not your alternative self. That alternative life is not yours. You must follow through in your own coarse. Only now, you must do so with the knowledge that there is something better, but that something better is not attainable for you. It belongs to another you. You are left with the lower end of the bargain. What good would that do? Nothing changes, and you’d have to suffer with that idea for the rest of your life. This very fear is projected in the old cleaning man, Purdeep, who blinded himself and destroyed his hearing with bleach because he couldn’t bear to see himself anymore, to see what his life had become, and what it could have been. It does not help to dwell on what could have been, to imagine you could blink you eyes and redo your entire life, because you can’t. You must plow through and make the best of what you have. That doesn’t mean that one must not dream. Dreaming can help make things bearable in rough times. But it is dangerous to allow your fantasies of another life to take over the one you are living in now. You must clear your mind. Focus on your own life, on reality. Dreams have a place, but do not let your life be consumed by dreams. The only way you can change your life is if you change it, by looking at your life for what it is now, and how you can make it better. You can make your own life be the better alternative, but the only way you can do that is if you start by facing the reality of where you are now. You are not your alternative self, so you cannot take the alternative’s life, both its past and present. But you do have control of your own future. So to dwell on an alternative past and present is meaningless. Those won’t change. But you can change your future, by first accepting your own past and present.