The Best Day Problem

Is today my Groundhog day?

Have you ever thought about your Groundhog Day?

Groundhog Day is a somewhat common cinematic trope, first explored in the extremely popular film of the same name (1993), starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. The concept is simple: the protagonist keeps waking up and reliving the same day. No matter what they do during that day, they will keep going back to the same start. Even death is not a solution to ending this tireless loop. It’s rectifying the way the protagonist lives their life till they get it just right.

Some other movies that have used the trope fascinatingly are ‘Palm Springs’, ‘Sore: Wife From the Future’ and ‘Good Place’ (ok, maybe not completely, but Good Place is somewhat like a repeated day).

I know a huge part of this trope is the need to rectify yourself but obviously, if one is given a choice to what their day on loop will be, they aren’t choosing a day when something went wrong. So, what is a day that you think you could relive consistently?

I am worried that I have lived that day, a time which I wouldn’t mind reliving again and again. I would probably give anything to do that, actually. And I am worried because what if that means the movie is over? That this is it, I have lived that day, and it went so perfectly that I can’t have it again. If you know the day that you would want to relive again and again, then wouldn’t you keep trying to make all your days like that?

Thus, now I wonder what is the day where I didn’t realise that everything went wrong and so I go back to that day again and again till I can rectify it. If I rectify it, would it start a life when there would be no need to choose a time that I specifically want to go back to?

Would I want that life?

The stagnancy of a good day and the endeavour to try making all your following days into that one good memory could lead to a failed life. Everything good that you had not known could be lived would cease because here you are chasing the one good thing you have already lived.

Additionally, the fundamental idea that there would be that one singular day where everything went wrong is so impossible. A series of days leads up to the future. So, who is choosing which day is the day I made my biggest mistake? I would say the day I waited for a text back or the day I didn’t follow through a plan or the time when I shouldn’t have lied or just mindlessly walked a path instead of choosing the other, were all equally contributing to everything that I am living.

Maybe I just want someone to send me back to a specific day, so I know why I carry this burden. So I can stop blaming everything everywhere for my situation.

While I say all this, I would still give an arm and a leg to live through some of my days again and again.

Also, did I follow my own train of thought now? Should I go back to it and revise it?