He Makes a Good Point

“You are being ridiculous you know.”

This is not the sort of thing one wants to hear after you have been discussing Heavy Things. “Thanks a lot Chris,” was all I could muster as a reply.

He adjusted his position in his antique chair in order to maximize the effect of his expression upon me. The combination of the shadows from the fire playing about his angular face is quite powerful and impressive. It's the sort of thing I've seen him do over and over again, to the point that I should be immune to it. I am not. Instinctively it gives me a chill up and down my spine. Then comes the rich rumbling voice with its British qualities and altogether it grabs the attention. “You are becoming fascinated with the concept of revisiting your past. To what end? What good would it accomplish to see yourself as a youth? I have seen you have pictures, both static and moving, of yourself as a youth, so it is not as if the sight of your youthful visage is foreign to you. If you are particularly keen to revisit a specific memory, cannot your friend assist you with recalling it to mind?”

Julia dropped off some tea, distracting me from the conversation. She needed no information from me regarding the makeup of my tea, seeing as how she's well used to my tastes in these regards from previous visits and cups of tea. The smiling and the thanking and such drew me from responding. Pulled back to the conversation, I checked “Sarah Jean?” Chris confirmed that this was the friend in mind. I considered this as I sampled the tea. It was wonderful as always. “I suppose she could. I'm not sure it's in her skill set. Of course, I've not had reason to ask before.” I thought on this more as I drank a bit more tea. “It would be interesting to see if the time period was as unpleasant as I remember it. Or if my attitude towards the time period would be different as seen through an older set of eyes.”

Chris set his cup down. “I was there, through all the periods that you were alive and a hundred years besides. The period you are speaking of would not look particularly better through older eyes.”

“What about the late 1800s?”

“Dirty.”

“The 1940s had some good entertainment.”

“Not while living in fear of the war.”

“Good music in the 1960s.”

“Hippies.”

This required pondering. And tea. I did one while taking in the other. “You make some interesting points. Am I to understand that the present time period is the best place to be?”

“Do you have another option?”

He made a good point. I stuck to my tea.