Taking My Time

I have been working with the TimePage, in one form or another, for a dozen years or so now.  It isn’t surprising, then, that my notion of history has been thoroughly shaped by the generational model of social cycles in history.   About two years ago, for reasons completely unrelated to my TimePage activity, I became interested in my genealogy.  I spent many hours grinding through the seemingly endless databases at Ancestry.com, wandering through old family photo albums and bothering relatives with requests for information about the family.  Then, just recently, I was quietly staring at the family tree one night when a thought suddenly pushed its way into my old, cluttered brain.  You know, my TimePage time lines and my family tree are really the same thing.  Wow.  Talk about a light bulb moment.  In retrospect, it seems so obvious that I don’t know how it could have escaped me.   At one time I had even mentioned a couple of my direct ancestors in the time lines.  Maybe, all this time, I have been tapping the same, hidden need to understand my past in both of these commitments.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I am now trying to come up with a way to combine the two elements within the TimePage structure.  I have mentioned in earlier posts that I am instituting a slight philosophical shift in the content of the TimePage.  In fact, part of that shift is related to the inclusion of genealogical data into the timelines.  I haven’t completely sealed the deal yet in my head but as time goes on expect to see a few more family tree details appear in my time lines.  If you think about it, the representation of social cycles are really just a family tree for everyone.  I just have to come up with a good way to hook the two together.