Who Else Might I Have Been?

Other lives...other me's...Pondering the idea of alternate universes, past lives - it's the stuff that both my dreams and my nightmares are made of....

Would I have been a gypsy, travelling from town to town; reading palms or tea leaves for credulous villagers. Or would I have a crystal ball that I'd gaze into with cunning, dark eyes, while I spun tales of  loves and lives, lost and  found.  Later, after singing and dancing by the fire, after the drunken villagers had stumbled back to their cottages - running off into the forest to gather herbs and roots by the light of the moon. Would I have been thrown in jail, or worse, burnt at the stake as a witch?!

Or would I have been a nun or a monk; spending hours on my knees, praying and singing. Scrubbing the sacristy. Then sitting long into the night, illuminating a manuscript by candlelight...

Might I have been a slave, toiling day after day in the heat or rain, bringing in someone else's harvest, hoping and praying that my master might throw some decent food my way? (and not beat me, because I'm sure if I were still me, I would have done something to displease him...)

A bard, trading my tales for a night's food and lodging. A jester for the king.  A maharajah's daughter; a peasant or serf; a missionary or priest; a Mayan stonecarver; an Indian scout; a blacksmith; a tailor or shoemaker; a jeweller.  Ah, I know - a tinker, of course!

Or would I have been a tar on a pirate ship - no, not this one: if I were still me, I'd be horribly seasick...or maybe that's why I am now! This is another life in which I think things would have gone badly.

A midwife or wisewoman, perhaps.  Helping  women of the village to birth or dispensing herbs to help with various ailments. Though I might anger some brute of a husband, empowering his wife  with some words of wisdom while dispensing her herbs to heal a bruise or prevent another pregnancy. Hmm, this might be another bad ending...

One that charms me to ponder, is an apprentice to one of the great artists. To actually watch and learn from one of the masters.  Although, I wonder if I would be banished from the great one's studio - after overturning some valuable pot of gilded pigment or forgetting to thoroughly clean a favorite brush (I seem to have those kind of mishaps in this current  universe!). Would the great artist then throw me out on the streets to beg? Or would I merely be demoted to cleaning out the horse stalls?

A writer - perhaps a contemporary of the Alcott's. I would go on to become a suffragette writing articles inciting the common housewife to rise up and revolt against their corsets! I would then be run out of town on a rail by their husbands....

Or maybe a follower of the  Impressionists; or a pre-Raphaelite painter. Though more likely, if still a woman then,  I would have been inspired by Beatrix Potter's lead and tried to sell little books, not nearly as clever as hers, but still illustrated with charming little anthropomorphic animals cavorting about. Or would I have donned a male nom de plume and written stories of fantasy, horror and adventure?  Perhaps a naturalist, noting down the habits of various birds and animals; filling in the margins of my journals with illustrations of each species.

A resistance fighter, smuggling people into safehouses, and then on out of the country. An aide in a sanitorium.  A newspaper columnist; a photo-journalist. A nurse or medic. One of the Ziegfield Follies dancers; a Rockette or a starlet (hey, a girl can dream!). A filmmaker; a director; a screenwriter. A country vet; an animal trainer; or a field biologist. A teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. An anthropologist; historian; a storyteller. A magazine editor; a store window designer; a radio talk show host; a writer/illustrator of children's books. A theater usher. Fast food cashier. A secretary; a librarian; a clerk; a copywriter; a diplomatic aide; a government worker. A census taker. An aide in a battered women's shelter. An artist; a crafter... An art teacher...an assistant art director of a program for developmentally disabled adults; a wife, a mother, a grandmother...

Oh, wait, I see we've moved back to the present universe.  Now I can begin to look toward the future...write it into existence. In the here and now.

To read about who other people might have been, click on Sunday Scribblings.

Comments

[Paris Parfait]

I love this post! All the intriguing possibilities, the excitement and adventure, all leading to the present. Wonderfully-written, Terri!

[Verity]

Isn't it great to daydream about all the possibilities, your post captured that spirit vividly!

[Daisy Lupin]

That was a wonderful post. All those possibilities, so many I would have liked to have been too, perhaps, they are memories of your past lives. If so you have had some very lucky romantic lives lol! xx

[samantha]

Every one of your imaginary former lives sounds like a delicious novel I would eat right up...

[Ninnie]

I love it. So many choices. Let's see what will Tinker be in her dreams today.

[wendy]

one of the most comprehensive woulda lists I 've read...so many great possibilities. Hey..you better watch out for the people with flames in some of them though!!!!

[Amber]

I can tell this topic really got hold of you! LOL! What great idea's of who you might have been... That is a fun thing to wonder about. And your writing is always fun to read.

:)

[artzyjudie]

As usual, your story kept me glued. You need to write a book of short stories. Seriously!!!

Thanks for the hugs. :)

[annieelf]

Oh the possibilites. And how endless. And in some cases, there but for the grace of God. Fascinating post.

[Jana]

I love all of the possibilities with bad endings! I was picturing them in my mind and most of those same possibilities would have ended badly for me too! I was NOT made for the days when women didn't have rights!