Today is ‘Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day’

It’s Dec. 8, 2020 and whether you’re reading this when it was printed or sometime in the future, I think we can all agree that 2020 will go down as the worst year of in the last decade.

Personally, if I had a time machine I would definitely use it to travel either back in time or into the future. Coincidentally, Dec. 8 is Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day.

The concept of time travel has been prevalent in science fiction literature, movies, and television since 1895 when H.G. Wells published the novel “The Time Machine.” The story focused on a time traveler that traveled to the year 802,701 A.D. and observed what became of the human race.

Since then, time travel has been featured prominently in movies and television. “Back to the Future” (1985) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) are some of the most prominent movies that utilize the concept of time travel.

The madman with a box, simply called the Doctor, became the most popular television time traveler in 1963. The Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey that travels time and space in his TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) with a human companion. Almost sixty years later and the show is still airing around the world.

Going back in time, before Wells’ time traveling tale, there was another story that featured time travel. It isn’t quite the traditional version of time travel, but the main character does travel to a Christmas Past and to a Christmas Yet to Come. “A Christmas Carol” written by Charles Dickens in 1843 features one of the earliest depictions of time travel, both to the past and to the future.

While time traveling is most likely impossible (if it is possible, then I will travel back in time and correct this erroneous statement), you can still have a good time pretending that it is possible. You can dress up like your favorite time traveler, it is Christmas time so put on your nightshirt, night cap, and call yourself Scrooge.

You could also use words from the past… and from the future! Except, if you make up a word that you think they’ll use in the future

and they actually use it in the future does that mean that they used it because you created it or would they have created it anyway?

Another way to pretend that you’re a time traveler is to design your own time machine. It doesn’t have to be an antiquated car or a police box either. J.K. Rowling made a pendant into a time machine.

So have fun pretending that you’re somewhere else and not stuck in the remnants of 2020. And, if you’re reading this in the year 802,701 A.D. then I have one question: did disco make a comeback? Come back to Dec. 8, 2020 and let me know!