The five-minute go-back-in-time button

I rubbed my eyes, wrote a quick comment, and hit send. I noticed my mistake immediately. I clicked on “Reply All” instead of replying directly to the sender. I cried out like I had been shot in the chest, frustrated and mad at myself for my error. My comment wasn’t horrible, but it contained a good amount of sarcasm, probably better for a personal email, not something to include in a note to coworkers.

I quickly searched for the recall button hoping to limit the damage. At that moment, my wife came home and popped her head into my office. “Sorry not now,” I yelled out like a crazy man. I went back to my search. Where did that damn button go? Finally, I found it and clicked on it.  

I held my breath as I waited for the damage report. “Spock, how bad is it,” I yelled out to myself. Within seconds, I got a return email saying that no one had opened my message and the email provider was able to recall the note. I felt like I had been let out of jail. I let out an excited whoop and ran downstairs to apologize to my wife.

This is a long way of saying that I’m a sucker for movies and television shows that turn back time like Back to the Future or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure or even the old sci-fi show, Quantum Leap, to name a few and I would love to have the ability to jump back in time. If for nothing else, to prevent the crazy five minutes of Hell of pulling back an email that I didn’t mean to send.

I love Deloreans too. You know the car that Doc and Marty retrofitted with a flux capacitor to time travel. It’s the adventurer in me. I would love to go back in time to return to special moments in my life like meeting my wife for the first time, seeing the birth of my kids, walking across the podium to pick up my college degree to name a few. These all have incredible meaning in my life.

There are other events that I’d settle for going back just for a few minutes, five to ten minutes, maybe more, to get a taste of time past so-to-speak. I wouldn’t have to stay long. Like the 2017 country song by Scottie McCreery, I want five minutes more. Here’s what I mean: 

–I would love to rock my kids to bed goodnight one more time. When my oldest was a baby, she would cling to my chest holding on tightly to my shirt. Meanwhile, my two sons would look up at me and put their hands to my lips to get me to stop singing nursery rhymes, fighting as best they could to stay awake.

–As tough as it would be to go back, I would love to drop my daughter off at college for the first time – one more time. Oh, I would be in tears, probably even more this time, but it would make the trips back to see her all the more wonderful.

–I would love to walk through the door again after a long day of work when my kids were toddlers and to see the smiles on their faces and feel their arms clinging to my legs.

–I would love to be asked one more time to play dolls or action figures or even the silly pillow fights the five of us would have in our living room.

–I’m a nostalgic sort. I would love to go back to when my wife and I were married to see our family and friends. I would especially like to go back and see our parents, who were about the same ages we are now.

–I would love to go back to being a kid on Christmas morning to see the look on my mom and dad’s faces. If I didn’t say it before, I’m pretty sure I’d be sure to say thank you this time.

Yes, I want to go back for five minutes more. If Outlook, Google, and the other email services can make a recall email button and Amazon can recall that purchase you just made, what about making a five-minute go-back-in-time button? C’mon on Tech Gurus, let’s see what you’ve got.