Shootin' it Straight - Time Machine (Free Access)

  My father and I share a striking resemblance in our appearance, captured in old photos. My grandfather and I share a mutual love of classic firearms. My great-grandfather and I bear the exact same name. I find myself wearing larger boots and longer trousers than both my father and grandfather before me. Most of those who trod down the mortal path before me differ from me only in minor ways. Many of our traits, beliefs, and matters of the heart we unknowingly share. However, the one thing I can’t feasibly share with my father, grandfather, or any elder up the family tree is a life in their time.

I am jealous, or at the very least, longing for a taste of life in their era. Despite all the modern amenities at our fingertips, I still wonder what life would have been like a century ago. I often wonder how I would fare in the role of a settler in the foothills of Eastern Kentucky. I daydream of a wild west adventure, pushing along the trail. I am envious of the early 19th-century days of toiling in the fields. Perhaps it's not my grandparents' lives I'm seeking, but rather a time when the world hadn't seemingly lost its way. I detest the nonsense of modern traffic jams, fast food, social media, free rides, and rat races. Life was by no means perfect back then, but it was untethered in a way I’m forever longing for. A hard day’s work was rewarded by a meal, a brief bath, the crackling of a wood fire, and a bed tucked in a corner. The results of hard work could be seen in the corn breaking through the earth, visible in the loft of a log barn. The pride a man felt in his family was all the reward that was needed. What I’ve always longed for is the simplicity of those times—a piece of well-worked land, a Bible that says the same, and a family that’s whole. That should be all the status one needs.

The daily game of human hungry hippos is my kryptonite. I cannot overstate my disdain for the stunting, attention grabs, drama, and the foolishness of being bogged down by trivial issues on social media. Some things matter, and some do not. We’ve lost our way. While progress waits for no man and I understand the evolution of the world, I can’t help but wonder if we’ve swung the pendulum too far. The industrial age pushed us into an economic superpower. Technology pushed us into an unmatched world force. I fear that whatever we've dubbed the "age of the internet" has driven us astray and off the precarious ledge. Orwell’s 1984 seems like a dysfunctional past event that we've left in the rearview by now. We once simultaneously watched The Jetsons and Little House on the Prairie, dreaming in both directions. Now, we are past both, and the simplicity of either make-believe setting seems optimal compared to what the world has become. There isn't a time machine available. There is no rewind button in life. We’ll never experience a fall harvest at the turn of a previous century before our time.

These things are true, but my mind wanders to all of the above and more regularly. I do believe I was born a century too late for my liking.