Back With the Future

Occasionally, I think about getting past some limitation of my existence. Because I am convinced of the power of the imagination, however, I rarely muse about money, as I fear it might lead me to a life of crime.

Instead, I follow the science fiction reading I did in high school and muse about traveling backwards in time. If it were possible to go back in time to change things so that the future might be altered in some agreeable way, what date would I find most worth traveling to?

This is the sci fi time travel story trope that has been exploited for its drama frequently enough in movies, from the Back to the Future films to perhaps most recently Men In Black III. It served up more than one plot for the Star Trek franchise.

I begin with this because I was reminded of it again this past week, when I had the pleasure of going on a trip up the west coast with my wife for our anniversary. First, after we returned, I almost wanted to travel back in time again to the beginning of the week so that I could do it all again.

We toured the Hearst Castle at San Simeon before going on to visit a few of the Missions established more than two hundred years ago by the Spanish missionary, Father Sierra. Our time was delightful and informative. The contrasts between the Hearst Castle and the missions were enlightening from every angle. Both were built from visions of improving on reality. The Hearst Castle itself taught a lesson in what wealth combined with a boy's imagination could lead to. According to the film shown in the Visitor's Center, William Randolph Hearst traveled through Europe with his teacher-mother for more than a year, and he brought back eclectic and varied images of old European art, bridges, bell towers, churches, and castles. These half-remembered images would burst forth from him in his late fifties as he began to plan his own castle on the hill on the Pacific coast of California.

One point brought out in both the tour and the film was the fact that Hearst invited important guests--celebrities, actors, comedians, politicians--to stay at his castle. One of these guests, it turns out, might have been Walt Disney.

I am not going on much evidence here, but I was struck suddenly by a possibility. I might have found an influence on Disneyland. Hearst's castle is a dream come true, of course. In addition to the wealth of art, sculpture, ceilings from medieval buildings and churches, and the famous pools, there was Hearst's own private movie room where he showed his guests movies--mostly westerns, the tour guide said, but also, possibly, Snow White.

This got me thinking about my science fiction reading and viewing. What if it were possible to go back in time and somehow prevent Hearst from inviting a young Walt Disney to his castle? What then? Would Disney have had the vision to consider his own star to wish upon for his dream to come true? Would he even have had a land to dream up?

I agree that I am reaching here from almost no evidence. I do know that creative people are creative in part because they are influenced.

What if Hearst had not gone to Europe as a ten year old? Or, what if he had never invited Disney to his castle? And if I go back and cause it so that one of these events didn't take place, would the world be a better place?

Here's where my dream gets messy. I think the world would be a richer, more wealthy and deep place without Disneyland. But a lot of people I know would disagree. For them, this would mean impoverishment, and I would be considered a devil on a par with the Blue Meanie in the Beatles' movie The Yellow Submarine.

So I keep this as an exercise in thought. Perhaps it would be best to consider our own dreams and influences. What do we wish to attain? And what is limiting us? Who might we look to for our inspiration?

These questions might offer enough as we continue our travel through time into the future.