Our favourite fantasy is going back in time knowing what we know now, read something on my social media feed the other day. Oh yes indeedy, I agreed. Imagine if we could do that. Imagine. That's a favourite word at home at the moment. Imagine if we could beat the team we haven't beaten all year and make the grand final. Imagine if could just get fit. Or rich. Or all our homework done on time. Imagine.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While going back in time with the knowledge we have now seems like a great idea (and I can't help but think about Back to the Future), would it be?
I can think of several things I'd do differently. Different choices, different decisions, different loves. But all these things have given us the knowledge we have now. Where would we be without them? Who would we be without them? Would life be any better? Would it be worse?
If we ignore all the real life changing events, there are plenty of trivial little things I would change in hindsight. I'll throw in a couple of past loves for good measure, those boys you never should have slept with, or the ones who you let treat you poorly. Everyone has someone in the I wish I never did basket.
But what other things would you change if you went back in time. I would have stressed less when my babies were babies. It wasn't so hard. Well it was, but in a completely different way than it is now. Watching them struggle as young adults is much harder than dealing with a snotty nose or a tummy ache. While they couldn't tell you then what was wrong when they were little, it breaks your heart to know that sometimes even now they can't either.
I would have taken more walks with them. Nothing clears the head of a baby or a new mother quicker than some fresh air. Those days where they fell asleep in the pram and you kept walking for hours should have occurred regularly . Get out while you can.
I would have worked harder to try and find a way to spend more time with them. But bills needed to be paid. But all of a sudden your baby turns up to watch you play hockey and you go who is this golden haired giant who looks like a man? Surely he's not the fruit of my loins? And you wonder where all those years in between have gone … if I could turn back time.
Other things I would change include reading more books, learning how to actually cook, making more time for friends, learning to surf, watching less television, walking the dog more, talking to people more over a glass of good wine, spending more time doing nothing, not feeling guilty about doing nothing, sleeping more …
I go back and come back with a better idea of what my limits were in all sorts of things, but at the same time have a greater courage not be afraid to push boundaries. I'd speak my mind more, not try and keep the peace because, somewhat foolishly, I saw my role as the peacekeeper. Some people just need to be told.
But hang on … why do I feel as though I have to go back in time to change all these things? All the things I just listed above I can change from this point forward. If you look at The Time Tunnel spiral (and hands up who's old enough to remember that show?) it's either coming or going? Maybe the trick (and I'll admit here I sat and watched the first episode of Time Tunnel - the boys went back and found themselves on the Titanic) is, as Tony says, all about whether the past and the future are the same, that time itself doesn't exist, it's only motion we measure, but nobody, even with hindsight knows what is going to happen….
OK, the 1960s were trippy but there's some truth in it
