Just finished reading "A Knight In Shining Armor" by Jude Deveraux last night. In it, the hero, Nicholas, came forward in time to clear his name. When that didn't work, the heroine, Dougless, had to go back in time, 4 years before Nicholas came forward to her time. Sounds confusing? Not really. And I love how JD wrote about Elizebethian time, her attention to details of everyday lives. I like history, and I love the Middle Ages of Europe. Well, Middle Ages onwards, anyway. In the book, when Dougless went back, she kept seeing things she knew she could improve, but she kept telling herself that she wasn't there to change the world, she was only there to change Nicholas' fate. Which is true. I mean, to quote Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (book, not movie), "The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed..." and that's true. A little thing in the past can have massive consequences of the future.

Which is why I don't think time is something you can go back to or go forward to (like in the movies "Back To The Future" and "Time Machine" and all that). Possibly, you can go back because the past has happened but I don't think you can go to the future because the future hasn't occured. Still. The logistics of the situation is quite mind-bogling. Anyway...

After reading the book, I stopped to wonder: If I could go back in time, any place and any, um, era back in time, what would I pick? And if I was able to go back, what small thing could I change that would improve their life back then yet not have these huge consequences that can change the future so much? Also, what part of their lives would I be most interested in experiencing?

And I've got a couple of choices there. First, I'd love to go back to Jesus' time and just, yknow, talk to him. I want to learn what he did say and what he didn't (because secondhand stories aren't always accurate). Of course, if I went back then, I don't think I'd have changed anything since changing something would mean huge changes in the Christian religion as we know it. I'd probably try to scientifically explain his miracles tho LOL It's not that I don't believe, but I just want to know if there's a scientific, or a physical, explanation to the things he did.

Also, if I went back to the years 1500-1600s, being a doctor, I'd definitely have something to say about their medical practices back then. And yet, I'd probably be too afraid to do anything because people in those days tended to explain unexplainable things by dubbing them "witchcraft" and, really, it was no laughing matter back then. But I'd probably imititate Dougles and just suggest (strongly) that everybody should wash their hands before touching the sick. And to definitely get rid of leeches. And the bit of life that I'd want to learn? Fashion LOL All those clothes, one on top of the other, no underwear; and the corset - I wonder how that felt like.

Yet I wouldn't want to actually live in their time. I quite prefer our time now. Even though there's so much bad in the world and no one seems to know the meaning of "honor" anymore. Still, the present's not really so bad now, is it?