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MFRW 52-week Blog Challenge​

This week's prompt concerns time travel: when and where would we want to go and why. Of course, as you can tell from the title of this blog entry, the prompt sends me straight to Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" and the line "Had we but world enough and time..."

If you've been reading this blog for more than a few weeks, then you know I make some strange word associations.

Frankly, I would not wish to go back in time. Sure, there are aspects of past ages that intrigue me, but I have a firmly established preference for modern conveniences with regard to hygiene, medicine, transportation, and political agency. I like not being chattel. I don't wish to live without electricity or indoor plumbing. I enjoy the variety of foods available to me throughout the year. I certainly don't want to go back to the days when my body would have been constricted and constrained by corsets or other torture devices worn for the sake of fashion.

Aspects of past ages that I'd like to bring back include the perceived commonality of good manners and polite behavior. I suspect that perception isn't as accurate as I wish it were. I wish that women weren't socially obligated to shave their bodies in these modern times. Between razors and cats, my skin is dotted and striped with pricks and scratches. Connect the dots, folks.

Had we world enough and time, I'd like to get a glimpse of the far future. Will it be the fascinating place of incredible opportunity and learning portrayed by Star Trek? Will humanity devolve into dystopian brutality? Need our race's path swing entirely one way or the other? No one can answer that.

Now that we've settled the when, what about the where? There are a lot of places I'd like to visit--at my leisure. "At my leisure" is the operative phrase in that sentence. I've traveled for business and that sucks. Currently, I'd like to tour the countries of Europe, including the British Isles and Scandinavia. I have no desire to visit any place in Africa. I think Japan and New Zealand would be wonderful to visit, but not necessarily Australia. That continent is really trying to kill you. Russia would be interesting, but not during winter. I'm ambivalent about Mexico. Central America doesn't appeal. Some of the countries in South America could be fascinating. I'd like to see Iceland and the Caribbean islands. My husband and I plan to go to Alaska next year to visit our younger son who's stationed in Anchorage.

More than just seeing places, there are ways I'd like to see them. I dream of going on an "equitour" of both Ireland and Italy. Think of it, a horseback journey pausing every night at a comfortable, usually historic place. What a lovely way to see the countryside and meet people--as well as get in some quality (and quantity) time in the saddle!

Much of my travel dreams and ambitions will never happen. I know that. But then again, I'm a fiction writer and, as such, I deal in dreams.

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