If you could go back in time........

[matriarch]

This topic started off as a 'Theme for the Day' in ABSTRUSIONS, and the answers posted already are so interesting, I thought it might make a good discussion topic for everyone.

So here it is:

If you could go back in time, to one event, one time zone, or to meet one person, where, when, who would you choose and why?

Mat

 

[ABSTRUSE]

One of two.

One would be Nefertiti in ancient Egypt, she was very smart, very beautiful and very powerful. I would love to know her on a personal level, I said personal, not intimate...pig minds. I would also like to find out who she pissed off that made them want to destroy her history.

Second would be Salvador Dali', the surreallist. He was crazy brilliant and an amazing painter. I would love to see his painting process and talk about art and beauty with him. He was an amazing person and had an incredible way of seeing things.

I like Rebel's idea too, but I don't think I would want to change history, we would have nothing to learn from mistake wise...but saving the lives of millions would be wonderful.


I cheated and pasted this from the Abs thread.

 

[cloudy]

(reposted from Abs')

I'll take a shot at the topic, but as Mat said, there are so many things I'd like to do if given the chance.

I'd like to have seen Led Zeppelin live during their peak (I was too young).

I wish I could have been there to tell my maternal grandmother that she shouldn't let the family she married into make her ashamed of who she was, and let her know that her grandchildren are proud of her.

I have a thing for Wales, and would love to go back to the time of Llewellyn Fawr and find out if he actually existed, or is he a myth, and what he was like.

 

[matriarch]

Honey made the point about going back and having a quiet word with herself.

I thought about this, but, if I did that, I would not have done the things I've done, been the person I was, and not be the person I am now. I actually am quite fond of the person I am, right now, so I guess I wouldn't change any of it - good or bad.

I would like the opportunity to go back and apolgise to all those people to whom I was obnoxious, spiteful, hateful - children at school, teenagers, adults. We've all done it, regretted it, but never got round to saying, "hey, I'm really sorry.".. and mean it.

Like Liar, I would like to go back and meet the grandparents I never knew, and also to meet the ones I knew, but who never really knew me, because of their age and mental frailty when I was a small child.

There are people I would like to have met.......events I'd like to have seen.....

.......such as, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on an incredible night back in 1952, when Kathleen Ferrier made her final public performance as Orfeo in Orfeo and Euridice before finally succombing to cancer. To have heard her rich, sumptuous voice in real time would have reduced me to silent, tearful reverence. It still does, and that's only on old recordings.

....such as 1851 to attend the Great Exhibition at the Incredible Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. I can only imagine the stunned faces of the visitors as they wandered this unbelievable edifice and saw objects, inventions, plants, foods, peoples which didn't exist even in their wildest dreams. This event more than any other, I believe made this country as a whole suddenly graphically aware of the rest of the world and what it had to offer.

.....back to prehistoric times, to have actually been there when Stonehenge and the other stone circles, long barrows, were built and truly know why and how they were built, why they were put there, rather than dwell on suppositions and assumptions of modern historians.

There are many others - places, peoples, times that fascinate me, and to have actually seen them, been there, experienced it at first hand..............wow factor of 100.

And having now made an attempt at this, I can see what an incredibly difficult, if not impossible, question it is to answer, but I've done me best.

Next???

Mat

 

[impressive]

As a genealogy hobbyist, I would go back to the early 1700s to unravel some of the puzzles of my heritage.

 

[bloodsimple]

I could mention the saving/changing of epoch-making events and the interruption of hideous genocides, etc, but let's take it as read that we'd all use our power of time travel for the good of mankind.

On my day off from re-arranging the universe, I'd go to Zaire (now Republic of Congo) in the 70s to watch Ali vs Foreman (The Rumble in the Jungle). Just to watch the greatest sporting icon of all time produce his greatest all-time performance, and to see how he did it.

This is because I saw United beat Bayern in 1999, and it wouldn't be as thrilling if you already knew that result, would it?

 

[Wildcard Ky]

It would have to be to meet Jesus.

 

[Lisa Denton]

Like someone mentioned, gosh, Adolf Hitler at the wrong end of my Gloch 9mm. I guess things like that are a given for the good of mankind. For me, maybe going back and seeing the country and people in the cowboy days, beautiful scenery and simpler times.

 

[Honey123]

Just for you Mat...cause I love ya!

Actually, I'd like to have been able to meet myself when I was a teenager (well, maybe not exactly meet myself) but to have been able to whisper in my ear and to have said, "Hey, remember that day when you decided NOT to do ......, well, do it, because you'll regret it for the rest of your days!"

But then again, my life would be totally different now....


After reading everyone's reply...I think mine is silly...but honest and really I would do it.

There were so many things that I did that I didn't regret. I regret not going to college. I know that this may seem silly to alot of you ~ but I have people around me, in my work life, and home life, that have gone to college. I sometimes feel like I am looked down upon. It makes me very sad. But I also know that the reasons I did not go were for the best. I had a chance. It's just that my father's business caught fire and there was no income for a while and, well, not that mine was near as much as what he had, but it helped. I gave up a chance to be something important to help my family. Not something I would change. But, I would go back and left myself know that it's never too late to change your life.

I would just have let myself know that there was a time that I could have done it for myself. Done something for myself. Everyday I am doing something for someone else. It's tiring. It's exhausting.....Okay, I am ranting....

 

[rgraham666]

I wouldn't go back to change anything. We have no idea what would happen then.

I would like to go back to ancient Athens and spend some time with Socrates though. with a tape recorder so we can get the original source, rather than what that verdammt student of his wrote.

 

[R. Richard]

After I saved the world as we wold like to know it, I would like to travel to the Skeleton Coast, around Luderitz in the time of about 1600. I would scoop a large bag of raw diamonds off the ground (just for souveniers of course) and return safely.

 

[CharleyH]

Can you believe I would not want to go back and meet anyone or see any particular event? I am happy with the things I have experienced and seen.

Hm - Ok - Bob Fosse. I was too young when he died, but if I could go back in time at this age, I would track him down and have his baby

Edit: Why? Because I'd want my imaginary kid to be a fab dancer no other explanation.

 

[Guest]

like so many of you, i wouldnt go back and change anything in my life, even though alot of it was total and complete shit. if i changed one single aspect, maybe i wouldnt have my girls or be the person ive become today and honestly.. i kinda like me.

however,

if i could go back in time and meet up with someone, id like to meet ben franklin. what a fricken letch.. LOVE IT! extremely intelligent... he must have been a very dynamic guy.

ok.. devinci too. ive read he was also a letch and totally off his rocker, would love to see what drove him to do the things he did. the secret things he added to his art just to piss people off or hide meanings.. genius!

ann bolyn(sp) what a tart!. ... i want to know what drove her to desire power so much that she would sleep with a puss riddled fat mysogenistic dickwad. plus.. i think seeing her extra finger would be kinda cool..

there are alot of things/people i wish i could have known.. if only for a short while.. i crave to know stupid things.. things that many people just couldnt care less about. deep down inside i believe its the stupid things that make the big stuff so important.

 

[Guest]

Can you believe I would not want to go back and meet anyone or see any particular event? I am happy with the things I have experienced and seen.

Hm - Ok - Bob Fosse. I was too young when he died, but if I could go back in time at this age, I would track him down and have his baby

Edit: Why? Because I'd want my imaginary kid to be a fab dancer no other explanation.

just for you:

http://pics.xs.to/pics/04082/dancingbaby.gif

 

[Just-Legal]

Me?

I'd go back to when I was at School, slap myself upside the head, and study. I'd make my grandmothers go to the Dr's when they first got sick, and I'd find some way to stop my mother having to go on the anti-depressants.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Can you believe I would not want to go back and meet anyone or see any particular event? I am happy with the things I have experienced and seen.

Hm - Ok - Bob Fosse. I was too young when he died, but if I could go back in time at this age, I would track him down and have his baby

Edit: Why? Because I'd want my imaginary kid to be a fab dancer no other explanation.

Damn, my money was on the Marquis de Sade.

 

[Vincent E]

If you could go back in time, to one event, one time zone, or to meet one person, where, when, who would you choose and why?

No Elvis, don't take those pills, or
No Buddy Holly, don't get on that airplane, or
No Stevie Ray Vaugh, don't fly in that helicopter, or
No Mama Cass Eliot, don't eat that sandwich, or
No President Kennedy, don't go to Dallas, or
No John McNamara, don't leave Bill Bckner in the game, or
Hey, I have an idea Don Zimmer, let's have Mike Torres walk Bucky Dent, or
No Grady Little, don't send Pedro Martines in for the eighth inning.

But maybe what I would do is go back to 1789 and ask the drafters of the Bill of Rights just what they really had in mind for the second amendment and end the fucking debate forever.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

I want to say "Jesus"... because damn, its Jesus. Or Socrates, for obvious reasons.

But, I'd probably go back in time to around 1939 and meet Hitler. I have a lot of questions for him. A lot of curiousities. I don't know that history did him justice.

 

[Just-Legal]

I forgot some.

I'd go back and shoot Thatcher. No word of a lie, that woman has a LOT to answer for...

 

[Guest]

If I could go back as myself today and not interrupt or change anything I would want to be with my father for the last week of his life (early November 1957; he was only 34). I would ask him every question possible that would help me know him as I could not when I was only a girl. I would tell him how much he managed to give me, tell him I love him and say adios.

Otherwise, I would want to go back and see and hear Maria Callas in her prime (front row center).

Perdita

 

[minsue]

Re: Re: If you could go back in time........

But maybe what I would do is go back to 1789 and ask the drafters of the Bill of Rights just what they really had in mind for the second amendment and end the fucking debate forever.

Perfect

 

[CharleyH]

Re: Re: If you could go back in time........

But maybe what I would do is go back to 1789 and ask the drafters of the Bill of Rights just what they really had in mind for the second amendment and end the fucking debate forever.

Why is it that the rest of the world see it?

Damn, my money was on the Marquis de Sade.

Being in jail to watch de sade write dull novels is not my idea of a fun time

Vella: lol - cute McBeal rendition, but it ain't Fosse!!!!

 

[Boota]

I don't necessarily believe that Jesus even existed, but I would like to go back and observe. Maybe even point Herod's men in the right direction if it turned out to be true.

It would be cool to go back to the birth of life on the planet and see what it looked like. Need a spacesuit for that, but it would be pretty interesting.

As far as changing my life directly, I don't think I would. I really like where I'm at now and I had to go through a bunch of shit to get here. But it was necessary.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Back before the moment of the Big Bang, before there was space, time, or matter.

Then I would be the primordial matter, and the problem of the origin of time would be solved because time would be cyclical in a phase-locked Ourobouros loop involving yours truly.

It's just waiting to happen.

--Zoot

 

[minsue]

Back before the moment of the Big Bang, before there was space, time, or matter.

Then I would be the primordial matter, and the problem of the origin of time would be solved because time would be cyclical in a phase-locked Ourobouros loop involving yours truly.

It's just waiting to happen.

--Zoot

If not for the generational difference, I would swear I used to get stoned with you in high school, Dr Z.