The Oscar-winning film "Everything, Everywhere..." posits a multiverse consisting of different universes set in motion by our differing choices or the choices made by others. I thought of Dorothy Day whose life course was changed by the refusal of Forster Batterham to marry her.

For five years after her conversion, and her decision to separate from him, she tried everything she could to change his mind. bit.ly/3mQq1ps When that door finally closed a new door opened with her meeting Peter Maurin and the start of the Catholic Worker. All that...

she accomplished afterward came through the frustration of her heart's desire--a universe set in motion because of Forster's decision. Had he married her, an alternative universe would have been set in motion--who knows whether happier for her or the world? But she would not...

now be a candidate for sainthood; the world would lack her radical model of the gospel in action. It is common to acknowledge the effect of personal choices, such as Mary's "Let it be done to me according to your will." But what of the outcomes determined by other's choices?