Can We See the Past

I'm not a scientist.
At least I think I'm not. I have a degree in computer science but I wasn't hired as a computer scientist. I think that's for smart people. And if you wanted true scientist things to read then you wouldn't be reading stuff written by me.

But anyway. I do observe things.
And this is what I see.

Light travels pretty dang fast. That's how we see. For me to see your face, light has to hit your face and then bounce off your face and travel (very quickly) into my eyes so that I can sense it and see your face.

When a ray of light bounces off a tree and then that same ray of light bounces into my eyes, I see the tree. It's a very good thing that light is nice enough that it isn't felt. Otherwise we would never get anything done because we'd be stumbling around reacting to all this light slapping us in the eyes. As far as I know, light rays travel forever. They go out into space for millions and billions and trillions of miles. That's why we can see stars that are trillions of light years away. A light year is how far a ray of light travels at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) in a year.

So let's imagine that a light ray, coming from our sun, has zipped through space and has come into our earth's atmosphere and has found me standing in my front yard and has smacked me in the face. Now the light ray bounces off my face and travels back out into space. This light ray, carrying the image of my face is now traveling at 186,000 miles per second and will leave our solar system in a very short time. At such a speed this light ray will leave our galaxy in just a few years and will then travel out into the emptiness of space for millions or even billions of years carrying a real handsome likeness of my face.

So, if I were to get into a really fast rocket ship, which can safely travel faster than 186,000 miles per second (without turning me into pure energy), and if I were to find this light ray and pass it, and then stop and turn around, wouldn't I be able to see me?

If I could find a way to locate and isolate particular light rays out in space. And if I were able to overtake them and race past them and then turn around and look at them, wouldn't I be able to see the great happenings of the world? Columbus being welcomed by unsuspecting natives, Napolean arriving at Elba, The Tsar, promising his family a wonderful vacation just as soon as the Bolsheviks are defeated.

Wouldn't I be able to find my keys?