History was made on February 26th, 2009, with the declaration of the first-ever Do Over Day. It's the one time of year when all Canadians can revisit and/or repair the significant moments of their lives.
A redux of all your treasured and/or apocalyptic memories
Imagine re-enjoying your first kiss, the birth of your first child, or even your first marriage. Picture yourself re-experiencing the fabulous meals you’ve eaten, the exotic lands you’ve visited, the epic raves you cannot recall attending. Conversely, visualize yourself making amends for your life’s imperfect moments – the time you made a pass at your wife’s sister and got caught, or the night driving home from the pub when you accidentally ran over your neighbour’s shihtzu, or that scathing company-wide email you fired off in a huff one fateful day, back when your career was still on track. And think about all the do overs you would suggest to others.
There’s something, or many things, for all Canadians to do on Do Over Day.
Do Over Day’s scientific origins
The ‘do over’ was first envisioned by physicists constructing the CERN particle accelerator in Switzerland in the 1980s. While creating the means to examine and perhaps alter the space-time continuum, they broached the notion of doing over certain portions of one’s life, should time-travel dreams ever bear fruit. The idea languished in the physics community until finally reaching the one man with the foresight, intrepidness and means to transform a mere notion into a nationwide, unqualified, bona fide reality. That man is known as Reggie, founder of Do Over Day.
A chance to feel better about ourselves, no matter how awful we are
Our leader knew what he had to do. “It struck me that Canadians inhabit a maze of social conundrums,” says Reggie. “On the one hand we think of ourselves as an easy-going, polite, even mild, people. But there’s also a passive-aggressiveness in Canadians that is tempered, thankfully, with a collective deep sense of embarrassment about our many flaws. That’s why we decided Canada needed Do Over Day, a notion resoundingly confirmed by the over four thousand focus groups we convened for this very purpose.”
Soon to be a major international event
So, while time travel may be a few years away, when it does arrive Do Over Day – by then an international event – will be awaiting it, with a backlog 6.8 billion-plus do overs long.
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