Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Oops I hit the Pause Button



I have been considering writing a post on Time Travel.  Recently, I read several articles about significant historical events that occurred: ex: fifty years ago, twenty-five years ago or on this date in history.  Also, last year I was inundated by notices of my fiftieth high school reunion and I often get notices from a military group about upcoming reunion meetings.  Not to mention that I read Stephen King’s 1963, and Time Traveler’s Wife last year and have just finished Time Travelers Never Die.  My mind has been fixated on Time lately.

1964


I printed Google images from 1963 for ideas; images of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, the Beatles, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement dominate the group.  What do I remember directly about those events and people?  Some fuzzy memories come to mind, but mostly I remember details that I read well after the event.  Clearly my mind was on other things of fleeting importance when I was nineteen.  Getting out of high school, starting college and gaining a sense of independence dominated my 1963 thought processes, not the history being made at the time.  In 1964 I met my future wife and joined the army.  Army life put my life on hold for three years; after my service was completed I concentrated on starting married life and returning to college.  The worldly events of the remaining years of the sixties left very little active memories with me.  I lived in a historical decade without clear recollections of those times.

In Time Travelers Never Die the protagonists visit numerous times and people with historical and scientific importance as the story progress.  They make lists of times and people they want to visit and search for a missing fellow time traveler, who also had interests in specific events and desires to meet important people.  

Current day mural of past event

It would be interesting to go back in time and watch, and learn from the past.  Understanding the causes and motivations would be far more enlightening than reading about it now.  In King’s, 1963, the protagonists want to change history, to stop the assassination.  You can read the story to find out what happened without me spoiling it.  I’ll leave thoughts about changing history to others and wander into a different direction (time-wise).  

In September of 2012 I wrote about a feature of my Time Machine, the OOPS Eliminator.  Version 2 is next with the PAUSE button.  Imagine instead of going back and fixing something you have the opportunity to PAUSE.  Stop and reflect and then act.  Give yourself a few minutes, a day or even several weeks to figure out the problem.  Don’t worry about fixing errors; get it right the first time.  Remove the stress of rushing from your life.

How would you  like an extra hour or day to complete a project?  How would you like to take a break from some task (cleaning the house, the garage, writing a blog or doing your taxes) to have a cup of coffee or go for a walk without a worry about a looming deadline?  

It seems that I have hit the PAUSE button on this blog too long.  What I really need is REVERSE switch so I can complete this blog and post it two weeks ago.  Would be nice.  See you next time.
 


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2 comments:

  1. It is said that history is written by the survivors. I think one of the astounding things about this age is there are so many many of us writers leaving a trail of written history behind us.
    I also find it interesting that the Big Events covered so ardently in the news seem to impact our personal lives so little and if we had not read about it or watched it on TV, there would be almost no real ripple. I, like you, was busy during a big decade that is remembered outside my own little sphere of activity by TV images and news articles and books about it. Hum.

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  2. One more curious thought about those "historic" times. Riots occurred in my home town while I was in the service. I was concerned about my family but those events are not seared into my memory because I wasn't present at them. I was 2,000 miles away.

    Also, in the 60s there was no 24-hour news cycle with constant coverage.

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