It's Easter 2000. I am in Manhattan at an Episcopal church. The priest is using way too much incense and I fear it's going to instigate a sneezing fit as I crinkle my nose.
But I'm happy because I am with Sarah, the woman who will end up being my wife. She doesn't know it yet, but there is a big stuffed bunny waiting for her in my Jeep.
Now it's 1975 and the Bay City Rollers' hit "Saturday Night," sounds amazing to me as it plays on the AM radio in the family's station wagon. Mom turns around in amazement as 3-year-old me chants the chorus, "S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y. ...NIGHT!"
Scene change: 1987, I am laughing hysterically as my friend Tom practices dancing with a girl behind a barn where we're blasting "(I've had) The Time of My Life" on a boom box.
"We are a race of time travelers, unfettered by chronology and capable of visiting the future or revisiting the past whenever we wish," writes Daniel Gilbert and Randy Buckner in their Time magazine article, "Time Travel in the Brain."
The article asserts that this ability is unique to humans putting us ahead of the pack, evolutionarily speaking.
On the practical side, this ability allowed us to sit safely in our caves and replay the day's adventures over and over, learning something new each time we replayed an event in our heads.
Our brains also allow us to travel into the future. The knowledge accrued thus far makes it possible for us to run through situations that haven't happened yet and make predictions about the outcomes.
At 23 months old, my son doesn't have a huge pool of knowledge to draw from. But as I watch him make his first friends, I am reminded of another aspect of time travel - it's fun!
Thinking back on family drives, one of the things I enjoyed most was turning on my Walkman and tuning out - diving into my own head.
I logged a lot of hours daydreaming about being a rock star or meeting girls as the sun poured through my parents' car windows. While I never became a member of the Bay City Rollers or met Tiffany, I still had a lot of fun!
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