I recently read Steven King’s 11-22-63. Steven King is not “my” author (and not out of any snobbishness, just not mine). I took on this reading because it was recommended by a friend whom I usually trust in book recommendations. While it’s still not “my” book and not a book “about me,” I really liked it and enjoyed reading from the very first to the very last page.
Firstly, I really enjoyed it as an excellent piece of literature ( And now, I won’t be able to read ok-ish books for a while :)) Second, (and that’s why I decided to write about it today) – I find the whole sci-fi part of it very realistic. The theme of “the past does not want to be changed” resonates with me on many levels.
Never in my life have I wished that “something didn’t happen” or “if only I could go back and correct something.” I know that everything that happened before today made me the person I am now, and it is often impossible to tell what won’t happen if I do things “properly” at some point in my life. I am so sure that correcting the past can’t work that I never had even a temptation to think about it.
On the other hand, as much as I am always in control of my life and know that things won’t happen by themselves if I don’t make them happen, I also recognize when the Universe does not want something to happen.
My London trip cancellation was a perfect example. I didn’t have COVID before, even when I was in the presence of clearly infected people, so having it from an unknown source right before my trip was a sign :). And then, when I started to calculate the dates and try to figure out whether I could still make it, came a loud and clear “no.” As much as I dreaded clicking the “Cancel the Entire Trip” button, that’s what it meant to be.
Hettie's Reflections 
I am glad you liked the book!
Regarding “the past does not want to be changed”: I just thought about it reading Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns.” In the chapter where she talks about the murder of Martin Luther King, she said “Precisely a week after King’s death, and two years after King’s brokered and dispiriting effort to end housing segregation in Chicago, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act of 1968, banning discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin in the renting or selling of property. King’s bruising fight for the people in the North would not be won until King had died.” Yes, sometimes the most atrocious and devastating things “move” the future for the better exactly because they force all of us to stop and reconsider things and maybe do something that we would never do otherwise. I often think about it in the context of this war in particular. I cannot imagine what else could make our society “to be awakened” so much on so many levels.
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As horrific as it sounds… sometimes, that’s what it takes.
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