One of our friends was relating a lunch conversation regarding a what if scenario: if you were able to go back in time, what period would you go to and what knowledge would you bring back with you? She wanted to go back to some time in the 1800s because she thought that she could affect history best at that time. Funny, I had the opposite reaction. Maybe I'm too conservative but even hypothetical time travel causes me to think to much about butterfly effects and such. Rather than taking on the idea of affecting world change I just thought about myself. I have made a lot of mistakes but I'm not sure that I would change most of them because they made me who I am today and I like who I am, regrets included. I've learned a lot from my little failures. But I did think that there was one thing I would like to change. Well, there are a few things but one that I was willing to share. I would have liked to travel back to meet my thirteen year old self and told her that life was going to be so much bigger than what I was confined to by my well meaning but extremely, religiously conservative family. There were long stretches of time where I struggled to find something to look forward to. If only I had known that freedom was right around the corner.
SB liked the idea of traveling back to the 1960s and hanging out with his beloved grandmother. "What, when she was a swinger?" I asked. "It would have been fun to go dancing in the 60's," our friend said. It wasn't that kind of swinging, I informed her. To be fair, it wasn't quite like that and explained it to our friend after enjoying her turn different shades of red. SB's granny was never a swinger but during that time period, it was discovered that many of her peers at the club were having special sorts of parties at the lake. Many of SB's peer group grew up with the cringe inducing knowledge that grandma and grandpa had a very special relationship with the other kids' grandparents. Eww.
Maybe traveling back to hang with grandma wouldn't have been such a good idea. One the other hand, grandma might have appreciated being forewarned that grandpa was going to run off with his young secretary. It all ended well because she went on to marry the love of her life, a neighbor on the lake who she had grown up with. Yes, those were interesting times but I'm not sure if I would have wanted to live them as much as I enjoy hearing about them.
SB liked the idea of traveling back to the 1960s and hanging out with his beloved grandmother. "What, when she was a swinger?" I asked. "It would have been fun to go dancing in the 60's," our friend said. It wasn't that kind of swinging, I informed her. To be fair, it wasn't quite like that and explained it to our friend after enjoying her turn different shades of red. SB's granny was never a swinger but during that time period, it was discovered that many of her peers at the club were having special sorts of parties at the lake. Many of SB's peer group grew up with the cringe inducing knowledge that grandma and grandpa had a very special relationship with the other kids' grandparents. Eww.
Maybe traveling back to hang with grandma wouldn't have been such a good idea. One the other hand, grandma might have appreciated being forewarned that grandpa was going to run off with his young secretary. It all ended well because she went on to marry the love of her life, a neighbor on the lake who she had grown up with. Yes, those were interesting times but I'm not sure if I would have wanted to live them as much as I enjoy hearing about them.
Comments