The insufferable what if game

I was hoping people would be mature enough to understand this, but they aren’t. So for my future mind that won’t remember I’ll explain.
The what if game. Everyone has played it one time or another. Either when you are sad and wishing you had done something different, or when you are relieved and imagine the worst.
I usually play the what if game when I’m waiting for news or when I’m relieved the news isn’t as bad as it could have been.
The car ride home after the accident was full of the what if game. Not only concerning the accident, but mainly. I kept saying things to make myself realize that we all got off so lucky. It could have been so much worse. Granted it could have also meen so much better – i.e. John not flipping his car – but at least he’s ok. I mean what if I had been in John’s car. What if Laura and Heather were the last car. What if Settle was the last car. What if the deer had jumped in front of the first or second car, would we have all had an accident? These are all worst case senarios. These are the what ifs that could have been so much worst and devastating. But thinking them makes you realize that someone out there was looking out for us. That although it was still bad, it could have been worst. And I’m so thankful that it wasn’t. Yeah, it sucks that John’s car is destroyed with less than 1000 miles on it, but at least he’s alive and well. Yeah, it sucks that we had to sit out there forever in the middle of nowhere, but at least no one died. At least we all walked away.
The what if game is dangerous, because it can quickly get out of hand. It can easily become a way to drive yourself insane. But played in control, it makes you very thankful. And then you let it go. When your mind finally catches up to what excatly happened and you understand everything, the what if game isn’t nessecary. But while you are in shock and still trying to make heads or tails of the situation, the what if game starts to sort out and find the good in a really awful situation.
So to those people who keep telling you not to play the what if game. Bugger off! Granted sometimes it gets out of control, but othertimes it is really nessecary.