Golden Age Syndrome

Ok, so it’s not quite Golden Age Syndrome, I just wish I could have lived in certain periods in the past. Like if I could live a couple weeks or even months in a certain time period, I’d be happy. When I’d get bored of living in one time period, I’d go on to the next, and so on. I’ve never been obsessed with time travel or anything, but that would be a great thing to be able to do. But I suppose my presence could screw up the time space continuum or something. Not that I’m so important or significant that I would affect the course of time, but you never know. One little decision that I could make could affect the decision that someone else might make. It’s mind blowing to think about.

But there’s so many things that have happened, mostly in the twentieth century, that I wish I could have been alive for, so that I could be a part of them. Like going to Woodstock. Oh, if only! And now that I’m reading On the Road, I wish I could have been a part of the Beat Generation with Kerouac, roaming the country, making friends with every stranger I come across, drinking, doing drugs, having sex, and doing nothing, never sleeping, having philosophical discussions all night. Things are so different now. Back then, it was semi-normal to roam and hitchhike like that, now, you’d have to be crazy to think you can live that way. Having met someone who lives like that now, I know it’s an insane way to live. But it does seem liberating; to not know what you’ll be doing or who you’ll be meeting from day to day. Any sane person that wants to road trip now has to have money and a plan to start. When Sal, from On the Road, started, he only had fifty dollars. FIFTY DOLLARS! And no car. That’s insane! That’d be like a hundred dollars today, maybe a little more. Crazy. I can’t imagine doing that in this day. But it was feasible then. Which is why I wish I could live in that time and do it the way Kerouac did it. Too bad they didn’t have Instagram then. I’d Instagram the shit out of my 1947 road trip (by the way, I think the Beat Generation was the first hipster generation). 

After my road trip with Jack, I’d want to get in with the Beatles’ crowd. But not until like 1965-66ish, when they started doing drugs and making music of more substance. I’d hang out with them until 1969, then make my way to Woodstock, and take some hits of acid with Janis and Jimi and Joe and whoever else. Then I’d find Queen and ask Freddy Mercury to teach me everything he knows. Maybe I’d go to Seattle in the 90’s and hang out with Nirvana and become BFFs with Dave Grohl. Yeah. 

But all in all, I enjoy my skinny jeans, and Toms, and iPhone, and iPod, and MacBook, and such. And I guess I’ll be ok with just looking back at written history, thinking, “what if?”, and being thankful for those who came before me and lived those lives that I can read about now, and be jealous.

(Oh hey, if you like this idea of the Golden Age Syndrome, go watch Midnight in Paris. That's where I got the idea. And it's a good movie.)