Quantum Leaping Revisited
I decided it’s time to post my answers to the question I asked a while ago (24 January, to be exact). And maybe hear some thoughts on this from someone other than Amb Bob! Come on, folks, let’s hear from the rest of you!
To recap, if you’ve forgotten, the question is, “If you could go back to any place, to any point in time, when & where would that be, and why?” Remember, too, that there are caveats against changing history.
1. The Age(s) of the Dinosaurs, as in the Jurassic and Cretaceous. I’d love to see dinosaurs, what they really looked like, sounded like, smelled like, felt like, how they behaved, what their environment looked, sounded and smelled like, what the night sky looked like (the stars have moved since then, and the constellations were different).
2. North America, circa 1400. I’ve always wondered what America, in particular, was like before the Europeans came. What was the land like, when all was still wilderness? What did Manhattan look like before it was turned into a concrete jungle? What about the Chesapeake Bay, and the DC Metro area? What did San Diego look like, what critters were there, before it was settled? I’d like to passenger pigeons and other animals and plants that are now extinct. I’d love to see the Great Plains before the iron plow came, when the Plains were an ocean of grass and millions of buffalo roamed. I’d like to see, experience and study Native American culture before it was corrupted and/or wiped out by the Europeans. Variant – but when I visit the Native Americans of the Great Plains, I’d want to jump forward several times at 20-50 year intervals, up to right before the settlers came. This would be so I could observe the changes that occurred when they discovered horses – horses didn’t exist on the North & South American continents until they were brought there by the Europeans. The great horse cultures of the Native Americans of the Great Plains existed for only a very brief time as horse cultures.
3. 3,000 BC and forward – Druids, Stonehenge & New Grange. As with America, I would love to the see the British (and Irish) islands back in antiquity. In particular, I would really love to see Stonehenge several times throughout its history, to see it being built, to learn how it was built, why it was built, and how it was used in all its various phases, not just the last. And to learn why it was abandoned – long before the Romans brought Christianity to the isles. I’d like to learn about the Druids and the other religions of the Irish & British native people (including the Welsh and Scots (Picts)) before the Romans and Christianity suppressed them and eventually wiped them out. New Grange, in Ireland, is a fantastic, circular tomb/temple, built @ 5,000 years ago, that, like Stonehenge, also marks the Solstices. Why? How?
4. 500 AD – the Oceans. I’d like to cruise the oceans before large scale pollution, before the age of whaling, before large-scale commercial fishing - before man decimated most species of whales and what are today’s commercial fish species – to visit breeding and calving and migrating areas when there were far more whales, when they had a chance to grow to full maturity, before they had a reason to really fear mankind.
5. 60 – 100 AD, Jerusalem/Israel and Rome. I had decided long ago when I first came up with this little exercise that I would not want to go back to either the birth or death of Jesus of Nazareth – that would be tempting fate, tempting God. But it would be really neat to see the beginnings of Christianity, when it was just what we today would call a cult, to see how & what the early Christians back then believed & worshipped, and to see the beginnings of how Christianity grew from a cult in Israel to the great world religion it is today. Alternatively, I think it would be enlightening to meet with the original writers of the various Dead Sea scrolls.
See a lot of common themes here? Besides Nature, a lot of what I’m interested in is seeing how things were before, or how they truly were – kind of along the lines of history being written by the victors, there’s a lot of human history, culture, etc., that’s been suppressed and forgotten over the last several thousand years because it was no longer consistent with whomever was now in power.
To recap, if you’ve forgotten, the question is, “If you could go back to any place, to any point in time, when & where would that be, and why?” Remember, too, that there are caveats against changing history.
1. The Age(s) of the Dinosaurs, as in the Jurassic and Cretaceous. I’d love to see dinosaurs, what they really looked like, sounded like, smelled like, felt like, how they behaved, what their environment looked, sounded and smelled like, what the night sky looked like (the stars have moved since then, and the constellations were different).
2. North America, circa 1400. I’ve always wondered what America, in particular, was like before the Europeans came. What was the land like, when all was still wilderness? What did Manhattan look like before it was turned into a concrete jungle? What about the Chesapeake Bay, and the DC Metro area? What did San Diego look like, what critters were there, before it was settled? I’d like to passenger pigeons and other animals and plants that are now extinct. I’d love to see the Great Plains before the iron plow came, when the Plains were an ocean of grass and millions of buffalo roamed. I’d like to see, experience and study Native American culture before it was corrupted and/or wiped out by the Europeans. Variant – but when I visit the Native Americans of the Great Plains, I’d want to jump forward several times at 20-50 year intervals, up to right before the settlers came. This would be so I could observe the changes that occurred when they discovered horses – horses didn’t exist on the North & South American continents until they were brought there by the Europeans. The great horse cultures of the Native Americans of the Great Plains existed for only a very brief time as horse cultures.
3. 3,000 BC and forward – Druids, Stonehenge & New Grange. As with America, I would love to the see the British (and Irish) islands back in antiquity. In particular, I would really love to see Stonehenge several times throughout its history, to see it being built, to learn how it was built, why it was built, and how it was used in all its various phases, not just the last. And to learn why it was abandoned – long before the Romans brought Christianity to the isles. I’d like to learn about the Druids and the other religions of the Irish & British native people (including the Welsh and Scots (Picts)) before the Romans and Christianity suppressed them and eventually wiped them out. New Grange, in Ireland, is a fantastic, circular tomb/temple, built @ 5,000 years ago, that, like Stonehenge, also marks the Solstices. Why? How?
4. 500 AD – the Oceans. I’d like to cruise the oceans before large scale pollution, before the age of whaling, before large-scale commercial fishing - before man decimated most species of whales and what are today’s commercial fish species – to visit breeding and calving and migrating areas when there were far more whales, when they had a chance to grow to full maturity, before they had a reason to really fear mankind.
5. 60 – 100 AD, Jerusalem/Israel and Rome. I had decided long ago when I first came up with this little exercise that I would not want to go back to either the birth or death of Jesus of Nazareth – that would be tempting fate, tempting God. But it would be really neat to see the beginnings of Christianity, when it was just what we today would call a cult, to see how & what the early Christians back then believed & worshipped, and to see the beginnings of how Christianity grew from a cult in Israel to the great world religion it is today. Alternatively, I think it would be enlightening to meet with the original writers of the various Dead Sea scrolls.
See a lot of common themes here? Besides Nature, a lot of what I’m interested in is seeing how things were before, or how they truly were – kind of along the lines of history being written by the victors, there’s a lot of human history, culture, etc., that’s been suppressed and forgotten over the last several thousand years because it was no longer consistent with whomever was now in power.
posted by Zookeeper | 2:23 PM
2 Comments:
I guess I don't have any faith that I would be able to sort things out even with a first hand perspective. And if you did come back with a different truth (on something that marks a cornerstone to our culture or beliefs) and no one believes you then that knowledge could become a burden.
Ok, it would be nice to see the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I guess I am more of a historical tourist. I am reading A Short History of the World by Roberts right now (I am only up to the Romans - this guy starts with hominids for Pete's sake!) and I wouldn't mind getting a visiual on some of the things that he is talking about, but I guess that would be more of an anthropological look-see than a historical "check the record."
I think another very interesting use would be solving some of my family riddles and getting to meet strong, interesting characteres like my great grand parents Kleine. We know next to nothing about my mother's father. We have a mysterious character in our family who figures in a slave rescue chronicalled in the book The Town the Started the Civil War. Through genealogy and an old photo I have come to wonder what happened to the children of a great-great uncle after he dies and they are split up. Things like that.
K
You're first paragraph is why I wouldn't want to go back to any point in time when Jesus of Nazareth was alive, or even too shortly thereafter. I believe in the Divine Light, that which our culture calls God, and in this time and place I view the Divine Light primarily through the lens of Christianity, because that's how I was raised. But...I also strongly believe that Christianity does NOT have have a lock on the Truth. Hindus, Buddists, Muslims, Jews, aboriginal tribes in the Amazon Rainforest who worship Nature spirits, etc., are all viewing the Divine Light, too, just through a different lens.
What I like about this little exercise is what it can tell you about people, what's important to them, and that you can get great ideas from other people. Meeting your own ancestors and exploring your family's history is a great idea; I'll have to add that to my list (actually, it'll replace #4, Oceans, which was a recent addition -- in the exercise you're limited to your top 5 choices). The first time I did this with Amb Bob, years ago on a road trip, most of his choices were what I term "Events in History" -- specific points/events, like seeing Lee surrender to Grant at Appamatox. I thought that was very enlightening, though it probably shouldn't have been a big surprise, as he was a History major.
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