On recommendation from a friend, I have started to read “The Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon, which is a story about a nurse after WWII in Scotland who gets caught in a time warp and goes back in time. This is the first of a series of books about this character.

I have always found the thought of time travel very interesting. Wouldn’t it be great to have “do overs” or to really experience another time and place? I am definitely a modern woman and like this woman who finds herself in the eighteenth century suddenly, I would probably expect more equality than she is finding.

It makes me think about how far we have come in human rights and yet how far we have to go. As a baby boomer, I remember when I was in college and my chemistry lab teacher told me he didn’t know why I wasn’t getting married and having children instead of going to college. That scenario must seem far fetched to many young people today.

On the other hand, there are stories of discrimination and abuse every day in the news, so we definitely haven’t overcome these issues yet. It would be interesting to see how far in the future I would have to go to find a world of peace and harmony where people are valued individually and collectively. Maybe that is just another idealistic thought leftover from the 70’s. I hope not.