Tag Archives: timeline

Time gaps

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I saw a social media post that was addressed to Gen X. It shared that:

The movie ‘Stand By Me’ came out in 1986 and it was about life in 1959. If ‘Stand By Me’ was made now, in 2026, it would be about life in 1999.

What??? That seems crazy to me. They would both about life 27 years before, but the gap from ‘59 to ‘86 seems so much greater in contrast compared to ‘99 to 2026. I couldn’t imagine someone trying to write a script about the nostalgic times of ‘99. Other than the panic around Y2K, what would the young friends in the movie experience ‘back then’ that would differentiate them from now, except maybe smart phones?

Is it only my lived experience that makes me think this way. Would someone my age back in 1986 feel about 1959 the same way I feel about 1999? I’m not sure, but I’d say ‘No’. The time gap of the movie seems so much longer than it would if we went back from today.

The only time in a single timeline

Sometimes I have to laugh because I feel like I’m living in an absurd simulation. This can’t be real life. I’m going to say 4 words and anyone who reads this, and knows the date I wrote it, will know who I’m talking about. Everyone:

He is an idiot.

When else in history could I say those 4 words, and only those 4 words, and literally everyone will understand who I’m talking about?

If it’s true that there are multiple timelines in the universe then I’m convinced that our timeline is the most satirical and ridiculous, and the brunt of many jokes among the other timelines. It brings me a bit of joy to think that somewhere out there in the multiverse there is a timeline where if I said, ‘He’s an idiot,’ people wouldn’t know who I was talking about… but that’s not the reality we live in. It’s embarrassing, but he’s such an idiot, he isn’t embarrassed, it’s just the rest of (intelligent) humanity.