2008 Woodie Awards
Think, McFly! Think!
Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: Editorial
- Page 1 of 1
On November 5,, 1955, Dr. Emmett L. Brown was hanging a clock while standing on his toilet. The porcelain was wet, and he slipped. He fell and hit his head on the edge of the sink. When he awoke, he had a vision of the flux capacitor. It's the device that makes time travel possible. After 30 years of toiling, he built the first functioning time machine out of a DeLorean.
This is the basis for a trilogy of films called "Back To The Future." In the movies, a student named Marty McFly takes the time machine into the past and into the future, and manages to alter time in entertaining and unusual ways. He fixes every major mistake, and in the end, everything comes up roses.
What if it were possible to travel back in time? What if mistakes could be fixed? In "Back To The Future," Marty McFly accidentally takes Dr. Brown's DeLorean into the past and meets his parents when they are young. He teaches his father how to be a man and teaches his mother how to kiss.
Marty's time-meddling turned his parents into happy successful people in 1985, but at what cost? How many lives did he change for the worse in the process? In 1955, guitarist Marvin Berry cuts his hand open while freeing Marty from the trunk of a car. He might never play guitar again. Who can guess what effect that ended up having on Marvin and his progeny? That wasn't addressed in the movies. Upon returning to 1985, Marty's parents buy him a new truck. What happens to the person who was supposed to buy the truck before Marty altered the timeline?
In the real world, people learn from their mistakes. Children learn ovens are hot by burning their hands on them. Teenagers learn to drive safely after a fender-bender or two, not because someone warned them catastrophe was imminent.
If it wasn't for Dr. Brown's mistake, he wouldn't have slipped and fallen and invented time travel.
What about the future? Would life even be worth living if the outcome was already unveiled?
People hope they will be happy in the future and hope they will be successful. What if hope isn't enough? What if the truth were less positive? After altering the past, Marty McFly and his girlfriend travel to 2015 and find that, in the future, Marty is a nobody and a wimp. And to make things worse, his daughter looks exactly like him. So, upon returning to 1985, Marty begins to make changes in his life hoping for a better future.
We have no time machines. We have no window into the future.
Life is about taking risks. If people constantly worry about having a perfect "future," they will miss out on living. This is often the mindset of college students. Students sometimes choose majors only because their intended careers will pay well. This may make them happy in the future, and it may not. Are they willing to sacrifice present happiness in hopes of a perfect future?
Students can't travel into the future to make sure the choices they make will lead them to happiness. Their choices could very well be wrong. Many of them probably will be. And those are the mistakes we learn from.
This is the basis for a trilogy of films called "Back To The Future." In the movies, a student named Marty McFly takes the time machine into the past and into the future, and manages to alter time in entertaining and unusual ways. He fixes every major mistake, and in the end, everything comes up roses.
What if it were possible to travel back in time? What if mistakes could be fixed? In "Back To The Future," Marty McFly accidentally takes Dr. Brown's DeLorean into the past and meets his parents when they are young. He teaches his father how to be a man and teaches his mother how to kiss.
Marty's time-meddling turned his parents into happy successful people in 1985, but at what cost? How many lives did he change for the worse in the process? In 1955, guitarist Marvin Berry cuts his hand open while freeing Marty from the trunk of a car. He might never play guitar again. Who can guess what effect that ended up having on Marvin and his progeny? That wasn't addressed in the movies. Upon returning to 1985, Marty's parents buy him a new truck. What happens to the person who was supposed to buy the truck before Marty altered the timeline?
In the real world, people learn from their mistakes. Children learn ovens are hot by burning their hands on them. Teenagers learn to drive safely after a fender-bender or two, not because someone warned them catastrophe was imminent.
If it wasn't for Dr. Brown's mistake, he wouldn't have slipped and fallen and invented time travel.
What about the future? Would life even be worth living if the outcome was already unveiled?
People hope they will be happy in the future and hope they will be successful. What if hope isn't enough? What if the truth were less positive? After altering the past, Marty McFly and his girlfriend travel to 2015 and find that, in the future, Marty is a nobody and a wimp. And to make things worse, his daughter looks exactly like him. So, upon returning to 1985, Marty begins to make changes in his life hoping for a better future.
We have no time machines. We have no window into the future.
Life is about taking risks. If people constantly worry about having a perfect "future," they will miss out on living. This is often the mindset of college students. Students sometimes choose majors only because their intended careers will pay well. This may make them happy in the future, and it may not. Are they willing to sacrifice present happiness in hopes of a perfect future?
Students can't travel into the future to make sure the choices they make will lead them to happiness. Their choices could very well be wrong. Many of them probably will be. And those are the mistakes we learn from.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Maddie
posted 11/09/07 @ 6:21 PM MST
this is an extremely well written editorial - i am extremely interested by this concept and i really appreciate your putting it into words. well done!
(besides that, back to the future is really a very good movie). (Continued…)
Jillian Campbell
posted 11/10/07 @ 6:34 PM MST
Great editorial Matthew Glass, old buddy old pal. Wonderful job. You are a great writer. And this really made me think! .....About making a flux capacitor. (Continued…)
Jordan
posted 11/11/07 @ 8:14 PM MST
So at first i thought this was a review on back to the future which i was cool with because come on, seriously, who doesn't like back to the future. but then you brought to the table some very deep thought, of the which i have thought about a few times in my own life. (Continued…)
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