On Time Travel and Past Mistakes...
So, there goes NaNoWriMo.... can't say I put my best effort in, but it was the first time.
I've only gotten to 15K on the story, and I'm not going to publish it here until it gets rejected by WoF... hahaha, there's optimism for ya.
My wife and I were talking and it dawned on us that this next week and a half is the last time we will be alone as a couple... forever.
My in-laws are coming for christmas, and after that our son will be born. It's been 16 and a half years of just the two of us. Some might say that's more than enough time, but it really doesn't feel that way. Without sounding too corny, it really does feel as if time flew by. I can't say that I have any regrets at all for waiting to have our kid. 40 is the new 20, after all, so we're barely 17-ish, hahaha. It's been an amazing run, and it'll probably be 20+ years (if we look for a second kid) until we're alone again.
I wouldn't change a thing.
I think a lot about past mistakes, things I could've done differently. Hindsight is a real bastard. There are some things from my childhood I would change, to make myself feel better, situations I would handle differently so as to erase some emotional scars. It's easy to look back and comment critically, but to be honest, I wouldn't risk what I have today or the person I am for anything.
So yeah, I've fantasized about going back to fix some things, but the butterfly effect is an inescapable monster, and placing my current happy and healthy mindset at risk wouldn't be worth it.
I've had an idea about a time travel story for a while now, about the ramifications of what actually knowing what path history has taken might lead us on. However, it's always been about one person's story. What if it wasn't?
Now that I remember I actually have two time travel stories, one for the past and one to the future, that I'd like to write. The one for the future I've always thought of as a noire-type mystery thriller, while the past was actually about an alien invasion.
There's a Tom Cruise movie that is actually close to what I was thinking. The one where he dies and relives each moment. I actually enjoyed that movie a lot, it was a lot of fun, but I really like it because it was so similar to the idea I had.
What if aliens had that sort of technology? To manipulate time and space? In the movie they used it to fix their mistakes until victory was assured, and the hero turns it against them. But what if it wasn't only one guy who remembered, but the entire population?
Think about this: Everyone gets knocked back 20-30 years into the past. Everyone.
What happens?
Mass hysteria, of course. The people who were in charge of the world 30 years ago maybe weren't alive, so why would they believe it? Even though a large chunk of the population apparently goes insane in a global phenomenon, ranting about an alien invasion.
What would you do if you found yourself in your 5-year-old shoes again? Knowing all you know? Knowing that your parents would split up. Knowing that a family member might get sick. Knowing who won the world series. Knowing that a government destroyed your country's economy. Knowing about planned terrorist attacks. Knowing about that creepy guy who works with your father who would take a gun to work one day.
Seeing all the people who died be alive again would be amazing, and my tendency is always to showcase the macro by focusing on the micro.
What if your significant other was in danger of not being born because her/his parents had split up, and even though in the past they were together... that history didn't disappear, so there's no way they would have anything to do with each other. That's a drama right there.
Mass lynchings, mass acts of vigilantism, all encapsulated by real, horrible grief and tragedy and loss.
That's pretty depressing. One of the reasons I only have it as a concept, but this is how the aliens win. This would effectively destroy civilization, leaving it ripe for the taking. Even though humans would have 20-30 years of warning, it still wouldn't help. Armies would rebel, the ones in the know versus the ones who don't.
I always think about, if I could go back in time, I would try to meet my wife earlier. Just so I could have more time with her than I have now, but then again, we're all so different people at different stages, our history makes us who we are. Who's to say she would've fallen for me at any other point in time? I'd like to think so, but the only way that would work is if both of use remembered. That's where this whole idea started.
The problem with the single person remembering the time travel is always going to be the lack of credibility that one person has, even with the people closest to them.
If someone you love tells you when and where you're going to die, how strong does your faith in that person have to be to accept it?
After many, many movies and TV shows related to secret identities (most recently catching up with the X-Men franchise in Apocalypse, when Magneto tells his wife that they have to leave), you always see the protagonist with the secret have to waste time hurriedly explaining to his wife/husband that they have to escape, someone's going to get them, usually while stuffing things into suitcases or grabbing a secreted "go" bag. And the significant other ALWAYS argues. Always goes against them, and hesitates and... boom! The bad guys get there.
So my wife and I came to an agreement, if either of us suddenly tells the other: "We have to leave... now!" There will be no hesitation. Sure, I don't know at what point during the last 16 years she's been hiding the spying/superpowers/contract killings, but I trust her and would never want to be apart, so I will have my foot out the door before she's finished the sentence. She can fill me in on the way once we're safely in the submarine/secret car/train/spaceship.
After all, home is where my wife is.
- Chair!
I've only gotten to 15K on the story, and I'm not going to publish it here until it gets rejected by WoF... hahaha, there's optimism for ya.
My wife and I were talking and it dawned on us that this next week and a half is the last time we will be alone as a couple... forever.
My in-laws are coming for christmas, and after that our son will be born. It's been 16 and a half years of just the two of us. Some might say that's more than enough time, but it really doesn't feel that way. Without sounding too corny, it really does feel as if time flew by. I can't say that I have any regrets at all for waiting to have our kid. 40 is the new 20, after all, so we're barely 17-ish, hahaha. It's been an amazing run, and it'll probably be 20+ years (if we look for a second kid) until we're alone again.
I wouldn't change a thing.
I think a lot about past mistakes, things I could've done differently. Hindsight is a real bastard. There are some things from my childhood I would change, to make myself feel better, situations I would handle differently so as to erase some emotional scars. It's easy to look back and comment critically, but to be honest, I wouldn't risk what I have today or the person I am for anything.
So yeah, I've fantasized about going back to fix some things, but the butterfly effect is an inescapable monster, and placing my current happy and healthy mindset at risk wouldn't be worth it.
I've had an idea about a time travel story for a while now, about the ramifications of what actually knowing what path history has taken might lead us on. However, it's always been about one person's story. What if it wasn't?
Now that I remember I actually have two time travel stories, one for the past and one to the future, that I'd like to write. The one for the future I've always thought of as a noire-type mystery thriller, while the past was actually about an alien invasion.
There's a Tom Cruise movie that is actually close to what I was thinking. The one where he dies and relives each moment. I actually enjoyed that movie a lot, it was a lot of fun, but I really like it because it was so similar to the idea I had.
What if aliens had that sort of technology? To manipulate time and space? In the movie they used it to fix their mistakes until victory was assured, and the hero turns it against them. But what if it wasn't only one guy who remembered, but the entire population?
Think about this: Everyone gets knocked back 20-30 years into the past. Everyone.
What happens?
Mass hysteria, of course. The people who were in charge of the world 30 years ago maybe weren't alive, so why would they believe it? Even though a large chunk of the population apparently goes insane in a global phenomenon, ranting about an alien invasion.
What would you do if you found yourself in your 5-year-old shoes again? Knowing all you know? Knowing that your parents would split up. Knowing that a family member might get sick. Knowing who won the world series. Knowing that a government destroyed your country's economy. Knowing about planned terrorist attacks. Knowing about that creepy guy who works with your father who would take a gun to work one day.
Seeing all the people who died be alive again would be amazing, and my tendency is always to showcase the macro by focusing on the micro.
What if your significant other was in danger of not being born because her/his parents had split up, and even though in the past they were together... that history didn't disappear, so there's no way they would have anything to do with each other. That's a drama right there.
Mass lynchings, mass acts of vigilantism, all encapsulated by real, horrible grief and tragedy and loss.
That's pretty depressing. One of the reasons I only have it as a concept, but this is how the aliens win. This would effectively destroy civilization, leaving it ripe for the taking. Even though humans would have 20-30 years of warning, it still wouldn't help. Armies would rebel, the ones in the know versus the ones who don't.
I always think about, if I could go back in time, I would try to meet my wife earlier. Just so I could have more time with her than I have now, but then again, we're all so different people at different stages, our history makes us who we are. Who's to say she would've fallen for me at any other point in time? I'd like to think so, but the only way that would work is if both of use remembered. That's where this whole idea started.
The problem with the single person remembering the time travel is always going to be the lack of credibility that one person has, even with the people closest to them.
If someone you love tells you when and where you're going to die, how strong does your faith in that person have to be to accept it?
After many, many movies and TV shows related to secret identities (most recently catching up with the X-Men franchise in Apocalypse, when Magneto tells his wife that they have to leave), you always see the protagonist with the secret have to waste time hurriedly explaining to his wife/husband that they have to escape, someone's going to get them, usually while stuffing things into suitcases or grabbing a secreted "go" bag. And the significant other ALWAYS argues. Always goes against them, and hesitates and... boom! The bad guys get there.
So my wife and I came to an agreement, if either of us suddenly tells the other: "We have to leave... now!" There will be no hesitation. Sure, I don't know at what point during the last 16 years she's been hiding the spying/superpowers/contract killings, but I trust her and would never want to be apart, so I will have my foot out the door before she's finished the sentence. She can fill me in on the way once we're safely in the submarine/secret car/train/spaceship.
After all, home is where my wife is.
- Chair!