Memories Of The Future

Once, in a "boxcar [I] said, "Oz." That was I. That was me. The only other city I'd ever seen [apart from Dresden] was Indianapolis, Indiana" (Vonnegut Pg. 148). I recall the magnificent sight as if it were 1945. As if "seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains" (Vonnegut Pg. 85-86), I will recall the "home away from home" (Vonnegut Pg. 152) we were given and taught to call Slaughter House-Five. It was a cozy place with terrible memories of death, not unlike those that will be formed of the present in the future. How do I describe my experiences with that bum called Pilgrim? I shall do my best. He was a quiet fellow who will one day become very famous and then die. The way in which he dies is already known by me, him, and all of his followers of the future. When he was a young optometrist and his millipede of a four-dimensional body, and walked "bobbing up-and-down, up-and-down" (Vonnegut Pg. 65), Billy was a man who had completely gotten accustomed to his lifestyle of "bobbing..." (Vonnegut Pg. 65). How he did it was a precious mystery which we all long to avoid and achieve in a way.

Life is a big roller coaster: Billy knew that. And although we long for the ups and dread the downs, we will only feel the emotions they cause if they are aware of the present, and only the present. Why then, would anyone be condemned to a life without any expectations or goals or excitement? Is it truly a good thing to have the ability to be a time-traveler-seer as are the Tralfalmadorians and Billy Pilgrim? Maybe "ignorance is bliss" (Thomas Gray. Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College ).