New weblog tour question:
If you could live in any time period, which one would it be? And why?
Your own answers are welcome in the comment box.
I asked this question of my father when I was about 10, and he said, “I’d live now. We have the greatest level of technology of any timeperiod in human history. Medicine has us living longer and healthier. I’m not sending you guys off to fight a war in the trenches. I can go to work knowing I won’t be eaten by wild animals. This is the best time to be alive.”
Because I was a little snot of a kid, I immediately thought, “How about a hundred years from now, then? If it only gets better, why not fast-forward right to the end?” But I didn’t say that.
I agree with him that we have more technology than ever before (there’s nothing to disagree with: that’s a fact). Right now, though, we’re a culture in transition. We have technology and we don’t even know how to use it properly. We’ve got medical techniques that we don’t know how to apply in good measure. Our economy prevents some people from having access to the good things that my father said makes the world so good to live in now (or, twenty years ago.)
I’m a cold-war era kid. Despite modern medicine and no lions roaming the streets, I grew up understanding that I could die in an instant, along with everyone I knew, if a couple of world leaders got too hot-headed with each other. Moreover, there was nothing I could do about it. This is something I accepted, and it was only when I saw my kids growing up without that fear of an instantaneous demise that I realized how unnatural it was.
We’ve still got glimmers of that out-of-control sense, but it doesn’t dominate society any longer. Fear of imminent death doesn’t eclipse childhood for most of us. My children never look at me and say, “We’re living in the biggest bull’s-eye on earth.”
I’m not sure when I would choose to live, though. I like being able to write and disseminate it to many people. More than that, I like being able to read anything I want, any time I want, just by googling it up or requesting it from the library or buying it off amazon. There are no forbidden topics. There’s no limit saying that because I’m female, I can’t learn too much. I’m not in danger of being killed for my religious beliefs, and at the same time, that leaves me free to listen to others speak about their own.
Plus, my kids can play in the back yard without fear of being eaten by wolves. And if they get hurt, there’s a hospital five minutes from here with painkillers and equipment to patch them up, plus antibiotics to make sure they don’t get infected afterward.
We do live in a good time. I think I’ll stay here.
—
Other people rejoicing that they don’t live in an internet-free era:
http://meganeileen2005.typepad.com/ twinkletoes
http://thatsloanegirl.blogspot.com/ CathyF
http://wryexchange.com/ Wry Exchange
http://www.absentmindedhousewife.com/ beckygoesape
http://verycontrary.wordpress.com/ Contrary
http://amandagorby.blogspot.com/ amanda_tg
http://whatsmylife.blogspot.com/ grinningcomb
http://nolechica.livejournal.com nolechica
http://addierambles.blogspot.com andra
http://la-eme.livejournal.com MsMoonbunny
http://philangelus.wordpress.com/ Tabris
http://mischief0617.wordpress.com/ CrowGirl
http://www.housewife2000.blogspot.com housewife2k
http://fatgirlartist.blogspot.com/ Amy Rose
http://lulupop.wordpress.com Lulupop
http://chrisnada.livejournal.com/ Cnada
http://robandkrista.blogspot.com/ CelticGemini
http://anime-coroner.livejournal.com/. AllyKat
http://www.drunkenhousewife.com/ The Drunken Housewife
http://ladyj3000.blogspot.com/ LadyJ3000
http://heartstart.livejournal.com Heartstar1
http://hijinksshenanigans.blogspot.com/ Hijinks’s Shenanigans
http://deltatangosgbs.blogspot.com/ afbluebelle
http://sarahesperanza.wordpress.com/ SquishyMooMoo
http://www.dutifuldanielle.blogspot.com/ dpbenson
http://sinkingtent.blogspot.com/ ladiedeathe
http://divine-misse.livejournal.com Shotochick (only readable by those that have a livejournal account)
http://mrsbart.blogspot.com/ MrsBart
http://rainhaville.blogspot.com RainhaDoTexugo
http://veggiebelle.blogspot.com mbbored
This is such an easy one. I’d live in the days of the Messiah. Okay, for me that would mean immigrating to Israel, but it would be an Israel at peace–sword into plowshares and all that. There would be some amazing benefits: world peace, immortality, an end to crime, an end to suffering. But those are all fringe benefits. The real appeal is that the entire world would know G-d in a way we’ve never known Him before, a deeper, more wholesome and perfect knowledge.
For that matter, maybe you could go back to Eden and explain to Adam and Eve in great detail why eating that apple would be Teh Bad. 😉
They didn’t listen to G-d, you think they’re going to listen to me?
You’re a human being, and you might do things God didn’t do in the Biblical account, such as tackle Eve or throw rocks at the snake. 😉
I’m pretty sure if throwing rocks at the snake was a good idea, a meteor would have landed on it. There’s the whole “free will” thing. Then again…”Look snake. I’m a knitter in a pre-yarn world and I’m getting a little twitchy. You look kind of long and thin. I bet you’ll work up just fine on a pair of size 17s.”
I would want to live now, too. I mean, who knows if I would convert having lived in any other era? On the other hand, on earlier eras I would probably have been born dead (truly, I was VERY lucky that the doctor decided to make a last check if I was OK, even though everything seemed perfect).