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TIME TRAVEL AND DECISION MAKING

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Fandango’s Provocative Question #85: LIFE DECISIONS & TIME TRAVEL

Time travel is my favorite science fiction subject along with witchery and wizardry. There are rules about time travel and always have been. I actually had to look up the rules, to make sure I remembered them. I found two sets, one from 2009 and another from 2015.

Both of these sets of rules are typically found in tales of time travel. The whole concept of time travel is mentally paradoxical and if you really think about it, it’s quite unhinging. That’s why I like it. I love the wild and crazy way you have to think about traveling in time. It’s impossible, but don’t we wish we could do it anyway? There’s a great series of books by Jodi Taylor called “The Chronicles of St. Mary’s” where nutty historians travel in time to view actual historical events and record them so that people finally get to know what really happened. The books are exciting and frequently hilarious. I think the series is beginning to wind down, but if you’ve never read the books, you have a whole series you can read or listen to on Audiobooks. I listen to them. Actually, I listen to them often. I’ve listened to the entire series several times, and a new book just came out which I have only read once … and I know there’s another one due in December.

So, about Fandango’s question:

The answer is yes, but no. Of course I’ve made bad decisions. Some were really terrible and I will regret them forever. But (there’s always a “but”), for every bad decision, in some way my life was changed, ultimately for the better. Change was not immediate or even quickly. Decisions made as a teenager didn’t come home to roost until I was well into adulthood. Karma doesn’t work fast, but but grinds very fine. Moreover, context matters. It can be decades before you realize that the bad decision you made in 1979 has somehow morphed over the course of decades to a great life.

I know there is no such thing as time travel. Even if there were “real” time travel, it would be dangerous beyond imagining because if you change one thing or one little part of a past event, other things will change. You cannot know what the potential fallout could be. Read Stephen King’s “11/22/63” about time travel and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It’s a brilliant piece of writing and it’s not one of King’s creepy horror stories. It’s genuine science fiction. Beautifully written and sometimes, almost poetry.

I know this sounds more like a book report than an opinion, but I’m seriously into time travel stories. If there’s not time travel, then I’m opting for magic. One of the other, but both would be lovely.

So, speaking of time …

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Categories: #FPQ, #Photography, Book Review, Books, Fandango's One Word Challenge, Provocative Questions, Sci Fi - Fantasy - Time Travel

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8 replies

  1. omniclassic
    09/05/2020 • 02:29

    I really didn’t want to move to the southwest, but I did for love. I struggled for many years before a random communication with my oldest sister started the domino chain that landed me the job I retired from, which, by the way, I only planned to hold for a couple of years. It turned out to last for more than 20 years providing me with a pension, an investment portfolio, and a small side business. Neither of these had I contemplated ever having.

    I was 50 when I accepted that job but still thought like a 20, or 30 year old with an infinite future. I fantasized about moving back to my beloved New York. Of course the longer I waited the more expensive that option became.., so I hung here for a few more years. Did i ever wonder what would have happened had I taken a different route and stayed in NY? Yep, but the powers that be had another plan in mind. Do I wish I could travel back in time and pursue an alternate route? Most assuredly. I soon came to the conclusion that you get one big chance in each life, and you do the best you can with it.

    Of course I think about the future of our species, and yes, we won’t be around to experience much of it, but we don’t have to leave it in shambles for the next generations either. We just can’t be selfish about this issue.., the fate of a planet is at stake

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  2. Fandango
    09/04/2020 • 02:31

    I’d like to travel back in time to when Obama was President. I’d say that I’d like to travel forward six months to when Biden is President, but I worry that we may no longer have a constitutional democracy six months from now.

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      09/04/2020 • 14:06

      I am trying REALLY REALLY hard to not travel that particular dark road. I can’t say i don’t worry about it because obviously I do … though right now, I’m more worried about climate than politics. I know how important social security and taxes and medical insurance and social justice is … but if we don’t have an earth on which we can live, the rest of it won’t mean much.

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      • Fandango
        09/04/2020 • 14:13

        Yes that’s true, but you and I will be long gone before our planet is inhospitable to human life. That’s why I’m more worried at the moment about what’s going to happen over the next 4-5 months.

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  3. swo8
    09/03/2020 • 11:17

    Provoking thought, Marilyn.
    Leslie

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