"If" - the two letter, one syllable conjunction in the English language has hidden superpowers. It gives anyone who uses it the ability to dream, to be hopeful, to justify, to explain, to create innumerable scenarios of what can happen given a set of "ifs", etc. Yet it is also a tool of the defensive mind. Add the adjective "only" after it and the power to justify or blame anything is limitless. At home, at work, among our friends, in relationships, even in math and the sciences, "If" is one conjunction we can't seem to live without. There is a lot there to chew. But bear with me because perhaps you may not be aware that you've used it often in more ways than you think.
First, the hopeful face of "If". In 1965, Sammy Davis, Jr., already a music icon of that and the following decade, sang this song. The first line of the lyric in the first stanza was actually the title of the song - "If I Ruled The World".
"If I ruled the world
Every day would be the first day of Spring
Every heart would have a new song to sing
And we'd sing of the joy every morning would bring"
(Worth checking in YouTube or any music medium). "If" is indeed capable of one such powerfully hopeful message.
Then there is the wishful side of "If" by anyone wanting or needful of a little bit or for a lot of fortune through some supernatural fashion or, alternatively, via the winning Powerball ticket. One such yearning is exemplified by Tevye - the main character in the Broadway musical, "Fiddler on the Roof", who sang what was really a simple wishful song but it was what Tevye said by way of a prelude to it that captured the audiences' sentiments.
TEVYE spoke,
"Oh Lord, you made many, many poor people. I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor, but it's no great honor either. So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?"
Then he went on to sing and dance to: "If I were a Rich Man"
There is one dark side of the superpower of "If" that resides among those who go through life cloaked in guilt-woven garments of, "If only I heeded the advice of so-and-so; if only I had picked a different career; If only I had married someone else; If only I had saved a little bit more; If only .. "If only", in fact, is so powerful when left unsupervised to roam along the irrelevant corridors of our past. Such an exercise in futility is like running backwards on the treadmill. Try imagining that for a moment. Clearly, it is pointless, yet, somehow, we would catch ourselves back pedaling on that treadmill of the impossible. In such a context "If only" can be one unnecessary burden that is best left by the road side of life.
The other option is when we add the interrogative, "What", before it, and we get:
"What if" when projected throughout the present moment or into the future may actually offer potentially better results; although it may present certain trapdoors if we are not careful. But with certainty, it will lead to an almost infinite number of doorways.
Take, for example, the expression, x=2(y). What if we assign a value y=3? Then we get x=6. You see, there is an infinite number of values we can assign to y that changes the value of x. "What if" is indeed a powerful tool.
Soon, we realize the power of "What If" when we are now talking about the future of a young person in search of his or her ability to fulfil a dream, pursue an ambition, or just simply bridge the gap between rough humble beginnings and a fair even path in the journey through life. {What if we give the maximum amount of opportunity to every child to develop what they excel in?} And what about assigning "what if" potentials to a start up business? Indeed there is limitless power of "What If" towards the future but care must be taken that it is not used backwards towards the past.
For the world that it is today, soaked in turmoil and suffering, let's go to the penultimate stanza of what Sammy Davis, Jr. sang then in 1965. By the way, the original song was in a stage musical in 1963 that was based on a Charles Dicken's story. The character in the play, Samuel Pickwick, was mistaken for a candidate and was urged by the crowd to state his agenda. He rendered his response by way of the song. We know Charles Dickens' propensity for social and moral context in his writings, so it is not a stretch to assume that the song is an answer to a plea for intervention by a Supreme Being - God, if you will - to put order to what seemed then and now as a very dis-ordered world.
"If I ruled the world
Every man would say the world was his friend
There'd be happiness that no man could end
No my friend, not if I ruled the world".
I leave it to the reader who is looking for answers to what seem today like a world with so many unanswerable questions, to ponder.
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