The Split

The Split

From I am OPTimist by Monika Bravo

March 16, 2026 · 31 min

About this episode

The episode explores the concept of multiple realities and the significance of relationships through the lens of Borges' work.

“Time forks perpetually toward innumerable futures.” — Jorge Luis Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths In Borges’ story, Ts’ui Pên attempts to write a novel and build a labyrinth. Everyone assumes that the novel is chaotic and the labyrinth is never completed. The revelation is that they are the same thing, because the labyrinth is the novel and the novel is not linear. One storyline does not exclude the others, but every possible outcome occurs. In one version of reality, a character kills someone. In another one, he is killed. In another one, both survive. Realities do not cancel each other. They exist in different timelines. So there is no point in feeling that I am missing the boat, because time is always working perpetually. There is not one boat, there are different trajectories, and alignment determines which branch I may inhabit or I may not. Sometimes in one’s life, someone appears first as a person, perhaps a mentee, a friend, or another kind of relationship, yet with time the deeper symbolism of their arrival begins to reveal itself. What once seemed like an ordinary connection gradually discloses an archetypal layer, a role within the architecture of memory and…

People in this episode

Host: Monika Bravo

Topics covered

  • time
  • realities
  • relationships
  • symbolism
  • perception

Keywords

  • Borges
  • labyrinth
  • timelines
  • symbolism
  • relationships

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Garden of Forking Paths

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