Finding your time and place

Have you ever noticed how people never seem to be in the "right time"? How often do you hear someone say they wish they had lived 200 years ago or 1000 years in the future? It is a very odd phenomenon that afflicts a significant number of us. But why do we do this, why do we frequently overlook our current existence and covet a different time period in which to live out our lives? The same often applies to location,

Personally I know I am just as guilty as others of this. The books and films I enjoy are generally not contemporary and those that are set in the present are often far from here.

Which is odd really because there is no real logical reason why this desire to be elsewhere exists? Is it perhaps an extension of the "grass is always greener" situation or is it something more basic than that? Are we humans simply that way inclined, always looking to be somewhere (or "somewhen") else?

Or is it that we like to imagine how are lives could be different IF we were somewhere or somewhen else? It could be that we prefer to counter our mundane (as they often seem to us) lives by pretending to be back in a "golden" time period, or off somewhere idyllic, or in the future which we can sub-consciously shape to our own preferences and make it the ideal place to live.

Whatever the reason I sometimes wonder if we are missing out on something by looking so desperately to be anywhere else. All around us there are fantastic experiences to be had, places to see, people to meet. And they are all within touching distance.

We don't need to imagine or dream about being elsewhere, we just need to look more closely around us and see that, actually, you are exactly when and where you should be.

Today's #randomfactoftheday - Donald Campbell remains the only person to set both the land and water speed records in the same year (1964).

Today's #badjokeoftheday - Q: What is the difference between a dog and a marine biologist? A: One tags a whale and the other wags a tale

Today's #websiteoftheday - A Manchester institution, the Museum of Science and Industry (http://www.mosi.org.uk/)

On this day; 1917, The Original Dixieland Jass Band records the first jazz record

Till tomorrow,
DT