This one only came to me this morning, so it's fresh out of the oven. Without realising it, somewhere in the last 55 years I discovered Time Travel. Not that it's some unique gift or anything, as it's available to anyone who's lucky enough to be born with the gene. The "History Gene" that is.
This gene is one of the "personality" genes, which is that collection of bits we're issued with on conception, that determines the non-physical aspects of us. I have no idea what the boffins call it, but that's how I see it, the same as our physical genes determine our eye colour and our height and the shape of our nose. The personality genes make us introspective or aggressive or cowards or explorers or politicians or nurses or psychopaths or storytellers. All that stuff. And one of these influential bits is the History Gene.
This gene makes us interested - nay, fascinated - in the past. And okay, here "time travel" is only about the past, which is the only thing that exists really. The Future is non-existent and the Present is that ethereal nothing that lasts less than a nano-second as the event of the moment becomes the past. So strictly speaking, only the Past exists. And we can sort of go back into it. If you're so inclined.
I (or rather "we", as Herself is similarly blessed/afflicted) started time travelling back in about 1965 when I was bitten by the family history bug, and began delving into the stories of all those past lives and times, that eventually resulted in a "Me". I couldn't leave it alone. I travelled back through the 1900s and into the 1800s and then the 1700s, meeting with my ancestors and having them give up their stories to me, stories of birth and death and love and war and kids and hopes and work and play and beliefs. They were journeys that I wish I could start, fresh-faced and ignorant, all over again. Dear God it was a revelation!
But, for me, there's been another element to all this. It goes back to the "Context" thing I did the other week. It enabled me to see myself within the greater story, where I fit into this great human saga of unknown length and unknowable purpose. And if I get to stand before Whatever created all this, I hope I'll also get the chance to say "Thanks, You did well", and then be given the rest of the story.
Cheers....
T.R.E.
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A couple of afterthoughts -
If you're inclined to The Big Picture stuff and want a glimpse into the past, read "The Inheritors" by William Golding, a great and enlightening novel. And just to balance it off, jump a little way into the future with "Riddley Walker" by Russell Hoban, one of the very rare great post-apocalyptic novels, done in shades of both light and dark.
And if you're curious about what we found in our travels, some of the stories are at...
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