TiMER

A couple months ago I watched a movie called TiMER.  It's a science-fiction romantic-comedy in which there's a little device people can get attached to their wrist that counts down to when they'll meet their soul mate.  When they get it installed, the timer will show X-years:X-months:X-days until they are to meet their match.  On the day you're to meet your soul mate, it notifies you and then when you meet them it alerts you.  Interesting, huh?

As I was watching this movie, I kept thinking what a grand, dangerous, wonderful, powerful, useful tool this timer is.  Wouldn't it be great?  No longer would we have to have to date around and waste our time on petty relationships.  We could skip heartbreaks and break-ups.  The waiting we do for Mr./Mrs. Right wouldn't be seemingly in vain because we'd know that in just 1.5 years or a few more months we'd meet the one.  It'd save us a lot of time.

But would I get that timer?  Some days I say 'yes', others I say 'no'.  Some days I just want certainty as to whether I am getting married, because now the verdict is still out on that one (not because I'm 24 and unmarried but because I don't believe there's a guarantee of anyone getting married/having a partner).  If I were to get a timer, I would at least know 'ya' or 'nay' to me ever getting married and wouldn't have to live with that question.

But for the days I say 'no' to the (pretend) option of getting a timer, I'm probably stronger.  On those days, I would be living life!  I wouldn't be waiting around watching my wrist, counting down to when Mr. Right comes into my life.  I wouldn't become a lady in waiting: just sitting pretty waiting for him to come before I start living.  What kind of existence is that?!  This is 2012, women can exist and live fully without men overseeing.  On days when I say 'no' to the timer, I'm realizing how blessed I am to have such fantastic people surrounding me, and how blessed I am to have nothing, no husband, no kids, no mortgage, to keep me here.  I could up and move to another country without worry about if my husband can find a job.  This kind of freedom is priceless and I want to bask in it as much as possible.

While the idea of a countdown timer is understandably grand, I think it takes all our faith away.  It answers too many questions for us, it takes away our freewill; our freewill to live life with adventure and wonder.  Wonder that comes when we've grown and improved on our own accord instead of the extrinsic pressure of preparing for one's mate.  Not having a timer gives us the opportunity to live as if each of our lives is important, with or without a companion.