Counterweight

HEALTH WARNING
The post below contains:
(1) arguably bad original writing.

If you are allergic to these abovementioned ingredients you are advised not to continue.

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Recently found a scrapbook where I had written some disjointed paragraphs. Some were on a plot I never finished, while on other pages I had written lyrics to Chinese songs. Among the mess of stuff I found a corrected, cancelled and amended monologue on time travel(lers) spread across a couple of pages. It was vaguely amusing to read what I had written years prior.

I have reproduced it word-for-word below. On hindsight, I would like to change some bits but have decided against it. The below work is fiction and does not accurately represent my views on time travel / travellers.

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People and pscyhological tests often ask the what-wouold-you-do-if-you-can-turn-back-time nonsense. We, as a species, often wonder about what we have done and all the what-ifs and would-it-have-turned-out-differentlys. Perhaps it's our distinguishing trait - that we can feel regret. Innit something?

Like so many things that our hearts desire, there is a counterweight to this in real life: the unstoppable march of time. Try as we may, most of us don't even come close to being able to deflect the mighty river of Time. It is a rather quaint realisation that our unique ability to obsses about the past is balanced by a complete inability to do anything about it. No matter your greviance with the past, time treats them all with the attention and concern of a block of lead - not only does it do absolutely nothing useful, there's a 50-50 chance it'll poison your brain.

This conveniently relegates us to obediently shuffling forward in time. I suppose that it's a good lesson in learning how to just "deal with it" and move on with life. When you think about it that way, you shouldn't be surprised that your average time traveller is a little worse at dealing with difficult siutations in the same way difficult kids expect to get their way because their tired parents let them.

There you have it: time travellers are like spoilt children.