There are a lot of places and times I'd love to explore...and see again.
At the top of my list of random places and times:
1. Back to ancient Egypt. I have a persistent dream about napping in the sunshine on the roof of a building, surrounded by cats. Plus, the library at Alexandria...irresistible.
I recently read Schiff's CLEOPATRA. According to her account, Alexandria was not a bad place to be a woman. It sure as hell beat Rome. You could own property, choose your spouse, run your own business. And I understand that the Alexandrians knew how to party.
2. Constantinople, around the time of the building of the Hagia Sophia. Before iconography was banned. I'd want to see the art, feel the tension of the riots and opulence. Taxes were oppressive as hell, but it would have been something to see.
3. Easter Island, around 1250, when the Moai were carved. I want to know what the heck they were for. Why the inhabitants deforested the island and pretty much eradicated themselves to create those silent sentinels.
4. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, around 700 BC. I would love to see something so lush and green, feel the reeds brushing my fingers and the shade of many trees. It was said to be a gift from King Nebuchadnezzar to his homesick wife, who missed the landscape of her homeland.
5. Petra in Jordan. I'd love to even visit it in present time. There's something really mystical about how the light illuminates that reddish rock.
6. I'd love to go back to many trips and adventures in my own life and relive them. Trips with my husband to the woods to call owls or get sunburnt on beaches. Getting married. Lunches with friends. Bringing new cats home, buying my first home. These things are always close to my heart.
7. And I'd love to see the future. I'd love to be able to look far enough to know if Star Trek technology is ever possible. Theoretically, we should have hard drives capable of containing all the data in a human body in about two hundred years. And if we can assemble and disassemble atoms...are we destroying an old Captain Kirk and creating a new iteration with each application of the transporter? And where on earth can we get the energy to run such things?
Mostly, though, I wonder if we will ever be able to get to another star system, find some new place to build pyramids and gardens and sculptures. No world lasts forever, and I'll be interested to see if we can lay the groundwork to colonize other planets.
