“You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one”
-John Lennon
When you are a kid you don’t have much. We don’t know much and not much is expected of us, although don’t ask a kid that, they might disagree since they know everything. It’s true though. As kids we aren’t expected to pay bills, go to work or raise a family. Yes we had some responsibility but it was cake. We basically had school and chores. Compare that to the grown up world and it’s a vacation. Because we had so much time on our hands when we were kids we had to find things to occupy that time. In my case it was a lot of cartoons, sports, toys and maybe the occasional book.
When those things didn’t fit the bill, I spent a lot of time daydreaming and using my imagination. Sometimes I’d incorporate my imagination into the sports and toys. I remember going over to School 36 in Days Park many days after school. Someone painted a baseball strike zone box on the brick wall facing the park. I never knew who did it but I was really thankful. Occasionally I would go over there with my mitt and a tennis ball (a baseball might have damaged the wall) and I would pitch a game. I’d pretend there were batters coming up and I’d keep track of how many outs there were and what the count was. I’d pretend that if I threw a lousy pitch the invisible team would get a hit and it seemed like I was always pitching for a team that had a one run lead so it was imperative to throw good pitches. Most times I won but occasionally I’d pretend I’d lose a close game, especially if I was thinking about pitching another game right away. Then I could redeem myself and help my imaginary team to ultimate victory.
I’d use my imagination with my G.I. Joe and Star Wars action figures too. I’d grab a large box and cut it up taking a long flat side from the box or sometimes a few of them taped or bound together, lay it face down and pretend it was the interior of a space ship for the action figures. I’d find some wood or even better some Styrofoam and carve it into furniture and parts of the ship. I’d make a deck complete with stations for the crew, a sick bay, personal quarters, a rec room and usually a landing dock too. I’d pretend the crew was on a mission like something out of Star Trek, or Aliens. “Aliens” was a popular mission… a bunch of space marines going to a foreign planet to encounter something unexpected. I’d use He Man figures as ferocious monsters because they were noticeably bigger than the G.I. Joes.
When sports or toys weren’t on the menu or if I needed a break, I’d plant myself somewhere comfortable and daydream. It’s something I do to this day and it’s something I find very healthy. I think everyone should do it. Sometimes you can get away from stress, boredom and the trials of daily life simply by pretending you are elsewhere. I’d often play little games in my mind. I’d wonder what it would be like if I were Teen Wolf, Ferris Bueller or part of the Breakfast Club. What would I do different? I’d dream about being a sports hero or a singer songwriter. I’d dream about being a photographer for Sports Illustrated when they were shooting their swimsuit issue. I’d dream about winning the lottery and what I would buy and who I would help. I’d dream about so many things but one of my all time favorites that I still dream about is having a superpower.
Have you ever played that game or had that conversation? You ask, “If you could have one superpower what would it be?” Growing up I’d always change my mind. One week I wanted to be able to fly, the next I wanted invisibility. Seeing movies and reading comics would always give me more ideas. For a long time I wanted the Force, like in Star Wars. For a brief period I even wanted the Schwartz. When I was younger I could never really decide. There’s so many cool superpowers out there, how could I?
I’ll still think about it once in a while but when I do the last few years I’ve always wanted the same power: the ability to time travel. I know that sounds a tad on the selfish side but maybe that’s a byproduct of being single for as long as I have. If I had a wife or my own family perhaps I’d desire a different imaginary superpower. With the ability to time travel I think about all the wonderful things I could see. Right off the bat, if I had that ability I’d go ahead a few days and get the Powerball or Mega Millions numbers and play them. Then I’d donate most of the cash to charities because I could always get more cash later.
Imagine the possibilities with time travel. I know what some of you might be thinking, why not go into the past and stop horrific things from happening. I could stop assassinations and wars and tragedies. There are no limits to the types of things I could do but I have to be honest and however silly I have given this a lot of thought over the years. I’m not interested so much with what I could do with the superpower but more what I could see.
There are no rules for time travel because no one can do it but I feel like there’s an unwritten code or prime directive if you will about altering events in the past. I don’t have much of a conscience about tweaking the future because it hasn’t happened yet but taking something off course no matter how good intended a time traveler would be could have disastrous results. Do you remember Back to the Future? Michael J. Fox accidentally going back in time caused so much trouble he almost wiped out his family and town’s existence. Plus his tinkering with past events caused the need for not one but 2 subpar sequels! He barely did anything and he “fixed” it but even that still had ramifications. No wonder Doc Brown was all over him about not altering a single detail.
I guess I’m saying that things that happened needed to happen to get where we are. So with that in mind I would use my superpower to see things in the past, not change them. Most of my travels would be related to the arts and travel. Could you imagine being in New York City in 1976 and seeing Blondie at a dive bar? I’d go to Minnesota around 1980 and see Prince. I’d go to the Whiskey in the 60’s to see the Doors. I’d go see the Beatles at Shea Stadium. I would go to Woodstock and see all those bands and stoned naked hippies. I’d go and see old Super Bowls, old Olympic games (could you imagine being in Berlin to see Jesse Owens stick it to the Nazis in 1936?) and I’d revisit a ton of local history. I’m a huge fan of my hometown and I would absolutely love to see it in its heyday.
Before we go any further there are several important questions to be answered about my time traveling superpowers. Would I let anyone know of my power? How would I handle the logistics of the time traveling? What would I affect in my own past? What would I affect in the future?
Going a few days into the future so I can learn of the winning lottery numbers for a mega jackpot is key. It’s key because once I’m rich I don’t have to work any longer so I’d have the whole day to explore things in other times. While most would be out working, I’d be out of time. Secondly I could buy a house so I can time travel in peace and privacy. It would be my hub. No one would know I was gone for large chunks of time. Thirdly, to go back to certain times would require certain clothing, perhaps specific coins or paper money so I could blend in and not look like Marty McFly in Back to the Future where the whole town thought he was in the Coast Guard or something like that because his 80’s vest looked like a life preserver to them. My goal would be to blend in and take in the beauty and sights, not to be a spectacle or draw attention to myself. Like I said, I would give lots of cash to charities but also having tons of cash will unable my time traveling to be easier. I’d be able to buy period clothes, get authentic currency and make certain my trip would go smoothly. Even if it’s a superpower, it’s not cheap!
Would I let anyone know? I would say no, but down the road when I’ve mastered the ability, who knows. If it got out on a massive level then there would be expectations and discussions. Could you imagine? People would want me to go back and kill Hitler, stop 9/11, maybe even save Jesus, who knows? There would be debate about my actions or lack thereof. Think about it, it would be hell to have a superpower in this day and age with public knowledge. The media are everywhere, hatred still runs rampant when someone disagrees and I might even have to worry about my life because of people who would think I was the devil or in league with him. As Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker, “with great power comes great responsibility”. So the more I thought about it, the less likely I feel like I’d let anyone know I lived the Time Traveler’s Life.
I already mentioned how I feel about changing anything in the past. I would only want to go and see historic events or things that were just plain cool. I’d want to blend, not stick out. I’d be taking a great risk as it is just by going to different places. Something as simple as me littering in the past could greatly impact the future so I’d have to be careful with all my actions and even my words. I know the temptation would be there to alter my own past. I could get better grades, make the right choices, eliminate mistakes, hook up with someone I missed a chance with and even prevent bad things from happening to me but I wouldn’t do that. Changing one decision I made in the past could make things better but also it could make things remarkably worse. I’m reminded of a simple cliché, what’s done is done. I would only be a ghost of the past, nothing more.
What about the future? What would I disrupt? What would I force forward? This is very interesting. If I went ahead 30 years and brought back things would that be wrong? How I feel about affecting the past is not how I feel about changing the future. Why? Because there is no future. How do we know what will happen and when? If I went into the future and found the cure for cancer and brought it back and gave it to someone, how are we to know that the person I gave it to didn’t discover the cure anyway? Maybe I was supposed to give it to them… maybe that’s how “we” discover it. How could we know? You simply cannot know what will happen in the future, especially the further you go down the line.
Would I stop great catastrophes from happening from knowledge I’d get from the future? I think I’d do my best. If I knew something big was going to happen I would try to warn people as anonymously as I could. It would be tough because maintaining my secret would be key. Besides if I wandered around predicting the future people would think I was a crackpot or worse. Some might think I was a criminal or associated with criminals if I tipped authorities about future tragedies. They’d say, “How did you know about that? You must have been involved somehow”. I would have to carry that weight… the weight of knowing that I couldn’t prevent everything bad from happening.
Damn, the more I think about it, having a superpower would be hard work. But if and when the day comes… I’ll be ready.
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