Grow Old With Me

Once upon a time I was twice upon a time.

Some people have lived previous lives. I don't know if that's true, but I know I have lived another life. The reason I know is that it's because I didn't die and then get reborn, i.e., become reincarnated. My two distinct lives overlap. Now. In real time. And very tightly.

Sometimes I act this way. Sometimes, that way. It is the sum total of the pros and cons argued by my two coincident lives. I live via bipartisan legislation.

Do not misunderstand. I am not schizophrenic. I don't have multiple personalities. My corpus callosum, allowing both sides of my brain to think as one, is just fine. I am just two separate lifetimes in progress, simultaneously.

Marie says I am different. I have changed. I'm grumpy. I've become obsessive about things like the thermostat and keeping up with oil changes.

"What's happened to you, Pete?" she asked me. "You've gotten, well, just a little mean to me."

"I'm sorry, my love. I hear you. Yes, I could be a little more patient."

"A little?" she laughs. "Try lots!"

What is a lifetime, after all? It is a life... in time. No rules of metaphysics mandate they be linear and sequential. If a life previously lived was in the past, why can't it be just a few minutes ago, in tandem, spoke-for-spoke?

Am I in love with Marie in one life but not in love with her my other? She's certainly entitled to more than half of me. How do I get my other life to fall in love with her. That may be hard, because that person--me--doesn't take criticism very well. Doppelgängers are, by nature, ill-tempered.

If it's possible to have had a previous life, and if it's possible that both can skew together to overlap, and that linear time is irrelevant, then is it possible to live a future life, now? Is that why I'm acting like an old man?

Marie and I had always wanted to grow old together. We will. I'm just a little ahead of schedule. But I look forward to the time when all three of us are happy together.