Saturday 11 October 2008

Sunday Scribblings, Another time & place.

G'Day,
Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is something like, at what time in history would you have liked to live if you could choose, why and where.
I have been thinking hard on this one as most of my responses to the Sunday Scribblings prompts let me use things from my memory but this one requires me to use my imagination. So I have been reading the writings of others who have written for their ideas.
Anthony North wrote in part about reincarnation. I thought I would follow along from his idea and write something about that.
When my children were toddlers they often came out with things that made me wonder if they had lived another life. When my daughter was between the ages of two and three she went through a phase where she would get really upset without me being able to work out what was going on. She would sit quietly playing with something and thinking and then would start questioning me what had happened to her other Mummy and where and who she was. I would ask her what she meant and she would say the Mummy I had before you. Then she would get upset and cry. Freaky.
My second son also around the same age would come out with words that I thought he was making up. One day he pointed at the fruit on the bench top and said Pome. From then on he started calling apples and pears, pome. I don't speak anything but English but I understand through gardening that Pome is similar to the french word for apple or pear.I am sure that he was too young to have either learnt or heard anyone else call apples that.
My husband when he was young went back packing around New Zealand. While he was there he visited Christchurch and was surprised to find he knew the place despite never being to New Zealand before in his life. He knew his way around the town and when asked directions from other people was able to guide them exactly to where they wanted to go without thinking about it. Pete, as I know him is not that good at finding his way around new places.
My other idea on this prompt was reactions I have had to movies that show other cultures. I am drawn to and moved by movies that show indigenous people down trodden and loosing their culture.When the movie is on the side of the conquering culture I feel sympathy for the indigenous culture. In the old cowboy and Indian movies I used to cry for the Indians. A movie that really upset me was "Once were Warriors". A New Zealand movie about a family of Maoris who were struggling in today's society with alcohol, violence, domestic and sexual abuse and the resulting suicide of one of their children. So maybe I would like to have lived in one of these cultures before the advent of white settlement came to them.
I guess that is being romantic and that I am wearing shutters on my eyes because I know from history that these cultures were sometimes brutal with much fighting between regional clans or tribes but I still think that it would have been great to see their customs and culture. Also before the time of white settlement, both here in Australia, or New Zealand or the Americas, these countries flora and fauna would have been less interfered with and damaged than it is today and I would have liked to have been able to see what that was like before the times we are living in now. As far as the food that they would have had in those days though, I don't know about that! I don't think I could stomach the foods that they had to eat. If I was living in those times I guess there would be no choice and I would not know any better.
O.K that is about all that I can think of tonight.
Good Night
Love Linda.

13 comments:

Shadow said...

oooh, the recollections from your kids and hubby are positively spooky!!!!

those times you describe sound a bit scary to me. i'd like to live, as myself, as if i had made a differenct decision (a different road) in my life, and see where i would be now...

have a lovely weekend!

myrtle beached whale said...

Great take on the prompt. Thanks for visiting my blog. Please become a regular.

anthonynorth said...

An interesting post, and thanks for the mention.
Yes, the problem with white settlement was that we didn't realise there was value in native cultures. We're realising it today - when it's too late.

rp605 said...

Wow that is so interesting, especially your daughter asking about another mother. To come from a child that really is spooky. And to see the indigenous cultures would be interesting too, imagine if they were not largely forced out, how different our world would be today. America, Austrailia... none of it would be anywhere near the same.
~mspennylane

Stan Ski said...

Quite a story to take to bed with you. Maybe it will provoke dreams that visit far-off times and places.

Queen of the Castle said...

I agree - as romantic as the past seems, there is always the opposite lingering in the shadows of our history books.

I'll take now thank you. :)

I don't believe in reincarnation. I do believe in ancestors, and their close ties to the living. I also believe in past experiences from our ancestors living in our DNA. I guess that sounds freakier than reincarnation, doesn't it?

Mountain Mama said...

I have often wondered about these things myself. I wonder if we have some sort of 'memory DNA' or something that has captured memories of our ancestors which surface in us from time to time. For instance when I am feeling very connected to my Irish ancestors, I tell my family that my Irish DNA is blooming. They understand. I often have 'flash backs' of places I have never been and people I have not known and have been to places that I vividly remember but have not been before.
I really think it's DNA related. Perhaps some day my theory will be proven. As far as reincarnation is concerned, I don't think our creator has to re-use us.

Robin said...

I've often heard that young children are able to see and remember incredible things, but that we quickly lose that ability as we grow.

Rambler said...

things like these even though may sound coincidental sound really hard to believe..make us wander into the unknown..nice take on the prompt

Anonymous said...

hi, Linda...sorry...I'm not really clear to when you're going...reincarnated or not.

Tumblewords: said...

We mostly don't learn until it's too late...I enjoyed reading your post!

susan said...

Linda,
I enjoy your posts. I hope you will visit me sometimes.

Nita Jo said...

I've had similar experiences myself and through my children. Makes one wonder. I really enjoyed reading your post!