“Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do.”
—Jean de La Bruyère
I know what I am about to share isn’t humanly possible, nor is it a likely scenario to happen any time soon. So, bear with me as I present these original thoughts and give some insight into my imagination.
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Recently, I have had this recurring thought: What if we could live our lives backwards?
Instead of being born an infant and growing into old age, what if instead, we were born into old age and grew into being an infant or a child?
Essentially, we would take the last day of our life here on Earth and begin our life at that age, and then work backwards; thus, decreasing in our age, still one year at a time, to where we become an infant or zero years old, and then enter the afterlife at that point?
What I am talking about is the complete reversal of human life as we have ever known it.
The normal course of life, from the origin of human history until this present age, goes something like this:
- We are born as infants – innocent, sweet, and very cute. AND, we are born with everything new – we all have new parts (hips, knees, ears, eyes, back, neck, etc.) In other words, we experience no pain, especially physically. It’s all fresh and brand-spanking new.
- Then we become toddlers – also adoringly cute (most of the time), still innocent, and incredibly flexible in all range of movements of our body (take for instance, squats – by age 2 or so, this very young mini-human, or mini-you – if you’re a parent, can stand and balance all by themselves, and then simply extend their bottom down, nearly touching the ground – & stay there…for a while. And, what’s more, they can actually stand back up again, no problemo. It isn’t a big deal for them and there is no pain. They can do this over and over again, with much grace, ability, agility, and ease.
- Then we become children – we begin to assert our independence and stubbornness, which are big, long words of saying that we really just want to get our own way. Whatever we want, whenever we want. We’re still cute and all that, but it’s the beginning stages of the self-life emerging.
- & then we enter the teen years – nobody likes this stage (parents or teens.) So, enough said there. Except that lots of mistakes are made here (or, “learning opportunities”), as our identity & self-worth are continually attacked and sabotaged. This era marks our fragile sense of self and challenges our state of being in staying true to who we are (or who we were as children, in the infant and toddler stage, when we were still innocent, wild, and free.)
- Adults – which basically encompasses that enormous expanse of time from the end of our teen years to the end of our life. Again, more mistakes, or “learning opportunities”, are made here, with some glimmers of hopes and dreams realized. It’s also the time where the slow and steady deterioration of our bodies takes place over time.
Doesn’t what I have written and described above just seem so…plain, bland, and, oh I don’t know…boring? It just feels so predictable, like the loud, oversized truck that comes on the same day every week to empty your recycling bin.
The primary advantages I see for being born backwards are twofold: One is we would have already gained life experience, since we already had lived it, and would know what works and what doesn’t. In other words, we would be able to see and learn from our mistakes. All of them – our failures, mistakes, and mishaps. Those regrets that plague us, & the joy we experienced in those moments daring to live; those missed opportunities, as well as those bold risks; the complex & difficult emotions of guilt, shame, and the inner turmoil (mostly in our minds) we rehearse over and over again, along with the elated feelings of excitement as we start a task.
Second is the redemption of physical recovery and movement. Put simply, it’s the ability to move freely and without any pain. To do those things you enjoy most, and to do them with the people you most enjoy.
To recap, the two benefits of living life backwards are: Being physically well and being able to learn from our own mistakes. Those two combinations alone would be worth living life in this way. We would have learned everything there is for us to know about life, the world, ourselves, and the people in our world.
