If I could meet one person in history...
Normally I don’t like when on the first day of classes, the teacher makes you stand up and tell the class something about yourself, but there’s one question actually has some merit.
If you could pick one person in human history to meet and talk with, who would it be?
Now, before you blurt out “Vlad the Impaler,” stop and think a minute. Your answer to this question could really tell a psychology major something about you. Some people have said they’d like to speak with Albert Einstein; others, Attila the Hun.
I’m having real difficulty narrowing it down, myself. Human history, as short as it is, has been filled with colorful characters and unbelievable personalities, many of whom I’d like to speak with, impart knowledge of the future to, or just cross-examine.
Case in point, it took me nine hours to write this article. I had some tough calls to make. Abraham Lincoln would definitely be in the top ten. The man fascinates me.
Not only did he have very humble beginnings and still become President, but somehow he managed to usher the United States through the Civil War with incredible diplomacy and determination while trying to cope with low national morale and his own inner demons.
I’d like to sit down with him and ask him how he did it. And what he did on the weekends to relax.
Galileo, the famous astronomer, is the next candidate. I feel for the guy.
Here he is, making discoveries and peddling the truth just like any other respectable scientist, but he gets clapped in irons and accused of heresy for it.
I’d really have liked to spend a night in this guy’s observatory stargazing and hearing him talk about his discoveries. Scientists, as long as I can understand them, never fail to fascinate me with their studies.
As long as I could avoid getting my head, hands, or (ahem) anything else cut off, I wouldn’t mind having a chat with Genghis Khan.
First, I’d have to ask him all about his battlefield tactics, because he obviously had some good ones.
What with uniting the entire Mongol empire under one banner and conquering an enormous chunk of Asia to boot, there must be a few tips he can give me.
Second, I want to know what made the guy tick. How he felt about clouds and sunshine on daisies and the love of a good woman and so on and so forth. Just dissect his worldview a little, that’s all.
Finally, the person at the very top of this list would be (psychology majors, hold your breath)…Groucho Marx. You know, the guy with the glasses, mustache and huge eyebrows, the head of the Marx Brothers, who along with Chico, Harpo, Zeppo and Gummo, made audiences die laughing during the Great Depression. Groucho has always been an inspiration of mine. Not only was he a marvelous actor, but he was witty as well.
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend,” he once said. “Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
I’d kill to spend a day hanging around with Groucho and his brothers. I’d probably asphyxiate from laughing so much.
Stop and think about all of human history and the different persons of every stamp that populated it. Then imagine you had the ability to speak to one or two. Who might they be? And what would you get out of talking to them? It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Andrew is a senior studying mass communication.
Columnists' opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of The Spectrum