60 years ago this week, something happened.
It started in February, which is why I like to wish my fellow Scorpios a Happy Valentine’s Day. (Count the months between February and November if you’re confused.)
Lots of momentous events and births and deaths on November 4th.
- 1493 – Christopher Columbus reaches the Leeward Islands.
- 1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a Scottish physician, discovers the anesthetic properties of chloroform.
- 1879 – Will Rogers, American actor and screenwriter, is born.
- 1890 – City and South London Railway: London’s first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.
- 1916 – John Basilone, American Marine sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient, born.
- 1916 – Walter Cronkite, American journalist, voice actor, and producer born.
- 1922 – In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
- 1937 – Loretta Swit, American actress and singer born.
- 1952 – The United States government establishes the National Security Agency.
And in 1965, in a small town in North Texas, a couple had their second child.
Six decades.
21,915 days.
720 months.
3130 weeks and 5 days.
60 is supposed to be one of those milestone birthdays. I don’t feel it as much as I thought I should. I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to be feeling, but the day didn’t really feel that special. The Facebook messages rolled in, and I got texts and calls from a bunch of other people. But man, I miss my folks. I think I’d give my left arm to hear them wish me a happy birthday again.
Doing It All Over
One of the fiction genres I find myself reading a lot is the Do-Over, or the Second Chance. I think the first one I read was Replay by Ken Grimwood. I recall I enjoyed it quite a lot. My friends and I had more than a few conversations over beers that started out with “If I could do it all over again, knowing what I know now…” so it’s not surprising that I like that genre.
It’s also probably not surprising that I find myself reflecting on that question as I mark this particular birthday.
What would you do differently if you had the chance?
I’ve written before that I tend to overthink things, and this is one of those ideas that I overthink. I love my kids, and I love my wife.
I’ve made more than a few decisions in the last sixty years that I’d like to correct.
The problem in my not-necessarily-neurotypical mind is that if I correct those decisions, or at least revise them, then I likely won’t meet either of my wives and thus won’t have my kids.
One of the stories I’ve been reading has a guy being very introspective about how the “ripples” he’s making will change things, including his kids. His thought process helps him realize how bad his marriage was in his first life. He reasons that by keeping that marriage from happening, he’s protecting his kids from the pain they went through in his and their first life.
I’m not at all suggesting my second marriage is bad.
But I know I could have been a better father to all of my kids. They’ve turned out pretty well, and I’m proud of them.
I wonder how much better my kids’ lives could be under different circumstances though.
What would I do differently if I could live my life over again, knowing what I already know?
School Daze
Assuming my mind works the same in the second go-round as it did in the first, I’d have to work much harder on staying focused in school. My mind wandered horribly, especially in what’s now called middle school, and I suffered for it in high school. I’ve never done well in math, even though physics fascinated me. The common path for college prep kids at the time included Algebra 1 and 2, plane geometry, trigonometry, chemistry, and a couple of optional classes (which is where I got my introduction to physics).
I took a lot of math classes at the time because I was on a college prep path, and I thought even in the late 70s that I wanted to get into computer programming, and that field was all about math at the time. I suppose it still is, to some degree. Looking back though, I don’t think a computer-related field was the right choice for me, mainly because of that whole math thing.
I was almost unbearably socially awkward for much of my younger days, too. I remember once trying to hide behind the lid of my desk over some embarrassment in elementary school. Knowing the consequences of so many of my actions and inactions, I’d have to work on applying that knowledge when the situations reoccurred, or to prevent as many of the bad ones as I can.
I’ve Got The Music In Me
I think I’ve mentioned in the past I took years of piano lessons when I was younger, from three different instructors, including my mom. Pretty sure I’ve also mentioned that I determined that I’m just not wired to play multiphonic instruments like the piano or guitar. I can hear and sing harmonies and play them on the flute. I just can’t quite wrap my head around how to play multiple notes at the same time.
Would that have been different if I’d had different lessons on the piano? Possibly. I didn’t learn about the Circle of Fifths until I was in my late thirties. And given my background of musical parents, the person who tried to teach me about it was stunned I hadn’t learned it long before.
Plus, despite musicians like Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and Jerry Eubanks of the Marshall Tucker Band, there’s just not a lot of call for flutists in pop and rock music.
I think if I had the chance to do it over again, I’d go for the sax family.
There’s just something about the reedy, raspy voice of a sax hovering in the background of a song. Jimmy Buffett even recorded a song lamenting how a sax can make or break a song.
What would “Born to Run” be without Clarence Clemons’ opening riff or solo? Thousands of people recognize Alto Reed’s opening notes to “Turn the Page” even if they’re not Bob Seger fans. Johnny Colla added a vibrancy to Huey Lewis’ music that can’t be created by any other instrument, I think.
Then again, I really like the Native American flute. I keep threatening to pick one up even though I haven’t played my “regular” flute in years.
Tough decisions.
Working For a Living
Despite my childhood dreams and desires to be a cop or a soldier, I think as I look back, I had no business being in law enforcement, as a soldier or a civilian. My social awkwardness and my not-necessarily-neurotypical mind made it really difficult to control my responses to situations. I’d go straight to 11 in stressful moments, and that never ends well in situations that call for calm and reasoned approaches.
So what would I do instead?
I’d focus on history and journalism. Because I’m all about stories, right?
I might still join the military, because all of the branches have, or had, good public affairs and journalism slots. I could have (should have?) enlisted into a combat photographer or military journalist MOS to get my training and on-the-job experience. Once my initial enlistment was up, I’d switch gears to the Reserves or National Guard and pick up a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
I’d pick up as many multimedia skills as I could along the way, knowing how technology would change newsgathering over the years.
I’d use the history aspect of my degree to plug into the research communities that look for World War Two shipwrecks and battlefields and cover those efforts. That kind of stuff fascinates me.
Foreknowledge
But what about all the other stuff? Assuming I could go back to my youth and start all over again, retaining all the knowledge I’ve already got.
Challenger. Columbia.
Edmund Fitzgerald.
The 1988 Rammstein airshow crash.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
9/11.
The Oklahoma City Bombing.
That’s just a few disasters off the top of my head. What kind of ripples would I cause if I were able to prevent those thousands of deaths?
That’s the fascinating part of the whole do-over genre for me.
What changes if you can prevent someone from dying? Lots of alternate-history stories focus on killing someone like Hitler to prevent the Holocaust. But it seems like few stories consider the consequences of stopping him before he can cause World War Two.
And I haven’t yet talked about the ways I can game the financial markets with foreknowledge of things like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and any number of company mergers and acquisitions.
Maybe this could be a series.
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