Time and the T'ang Dynasty

Is there something that everyone in the world does or has done? I mean there are things that we can't function without, eating and sleeping, but does everyone do them? How do I know that there isn't some person out there who has some condition where they don't need any sleep at all?
But there is something I think the majority of people have wondered. What if I was born into a different time place or situation. If time isn't a line, as some theories say, and it is always and continually happening, it could have happened, that I, the same person, was born into a wealthy earl's family in the mid-1600's. Or a Indian Brahmin's in the 300's. I mean, I suppose my body would be different, but my soul (if I decide whether or not I do believe there is a soul) would be the same.
I have often wondered what era I am most dissappointed that I missed. Elizabeth I's time is high on the list, as is the 1960's, the Middle East in the 500's, 600's, and 700's, before the Crusades, Renaissance Italy, and ancient Greece. Those are just to name a few. I am currently in a phase of obssession with history. It was probably brought on by Rome to Renaissance, our current main lesson block, and an overdose of Mrs. Amrine.

My mother tells me of my grandfather, and of his grandfather.
She speaks of wars that were fought, and famines that were defeated.
But I do not understand.
She says,
"Suffering comes to everyone in the world. It is not a happy place."
She says,
"Happiness is rice in our bowls on the table in the evening."
I say,
"Happiness is the birds that fly over my head in the morning,
And the horses who run in the fields through the afternoon"

This a poem I composed just now, inspired by what we learned today about the T'ang dynasty.