Timelines

Image Jo Freitag

History homework always causes problems for Sprite.

Last night was no exception. The exercise was to mark certain important dates in Australian history on a timeline and write a paragraph about each one.
The Twitter Birds sporting their Movember moustaches were twittering encouragingly. White Poodle was perched on the desk.
And the Dabrowski Dogs were ready to help.
“Go on – just draw a timeline and write those dates on it and if Intellectual doesn’t find you too much information about each one we can be out of here in five minutes!” urged Psycho Motor. He had already brought out the Frisbee.

“She has to do it properly!” growled Intellectual. “I have provided a six volume account of the nation’s history and background readings to help determine whether the dates as stated in the books are accurate. I have also provided biographical details about the author to help determine his point of view and possible reasons for any inaccuracies.”

“But I don’t know how to draw the timeline” Sprite was saying “And I don’t know what date to put for the start.”

“I don’t see any problem” said Psycho Motor “Just draw a straight line with a ruler, put the dates you were given in order under the line and label each of the dates with the most important event that happened that year. Just do it and then we can go outside.”

“Sprite is obviously taking into account  the disputes surrounding the determination of the years according to various people groups and religions” conceded Intellectual.  “Let us assume for the purposes of this exercise that the dates are Western C.E. Common Era (we used to call it A.D. Anno Domini)”

“But what do I put for the starting date and how do I determine the scale for the timeline?” asked Sprite.”The history of the indigenous peoples goes back thousands and thousands of years before any of these dates.”

“And, anyway,” Sprite continued “I don’t even think time goes in one direction in a straight line. If it did we would measure it with a ruler not a clock.”

“What on Earth have you been suggesting to her now, Imaginational?” demanded Intellectual.

“I just said” replied Imaginational “that I thought time went out from a single point (but I don’t know where that point would be located) and that it goes out in all directions in a spiral pattern wave motion. That explains why we have déjà vu and serendipitous crossing of paths and it also explains why we have different places being at different stages at the same time. It explains why history repeats itself and people keep on making the same mistakes. And it could also explain how some inventions originate  and why some people have precognition”

Intellectual put his head on the floor and covered his nose with his paws.“No wonder she is confused, Imaginational!” he growled. “I wish you would only help Sprite with her homework when she has a creative writing exercise.”

Image Jo Freitag