Time Travel

Has it already begun

I wonder sometimes if the highways of time have already opened for travel. Trust me, I know how ridiculous that statement sounds. But, I also know how it could make all the sense in the world.

This image that I came across reminds me of 1967. Some aspects of the photo are nearly exact in their detail to a photo of my family when I was two years of age. We posed on a short wall, my parents and my older brother. Yes, I realize that there is a girl in the photo. ( just a little eerie, she favors me at that age) The background is different, as well. My family was posed on a short wall beside a pull-off on a scenic road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Still, when I saw it, I could again see the photo from my youth. My father and mother were posed exactly like the beach-visiting parents here in this photo. Their facial expressions closely match my parents' expressions. I can’t wait to dig out the old photo and compare other aspects.

I know they are not the same. I know that this is not proof sent to me from 1967 to validate any misguided beliefs that may from time to time pose as temporary tenets in my mind. I know. I know I’m not crazy . . . wait, no, I can’t say that, because at the end of the day, when all is said and done, when the cows are back in the barn, and when all other applicable cliches are used up . . . we’ve all got a little crazy in us. You know I’m right.

The funny thing is that I started this little essay months ago. Had that inkling of an idea, a couple of viable thoughts on the subject. You may have been here before, yourself. All’s going well, you get your title down, catchy subtitle, and . . . wait just a second, where did this brick wall come from? You take a walk, make a cup of tea, ask the dog for help, and then there might as well be that same brick wall posing as a background on your laptop.

Anyway, the title sat there in “Stories” along with a few other stalled ideas in various states of stalled. I would see it from time to time, mocking me, “Hey there, Hemmingway. Remember me, huh? Yeah, you really dropped the ole ballpoint pen on this one, didn’t you? Ah, don’t sweat it, you’ll think of something . . . someday . . . maybe . . . OK, probably not, just delete the damn thing already!” I don’t do that. I run across old ideas written on the backs of receipts from the year 1999 and usually I’ll sit there dumbfounded, trying to think of how that idea was supposed to be something.

But this idea was re-triggered by this fine image at the top of the essay. Wait, no don’t scroll back up, I’ve got it . . .

I wish you could see it from my mind. It’s all there. Everything I needed to pull the thoughts on this matter together.

I’ve taken too long to say what I wanted to say, but that’s what happens when you look down and see that it’s 1:41 AM. I don’t care. I finishing it now, no way I’m closing this one up. Just stay with me a minute, two, okay maybe three.

You see, for a few years now ( I have a theory that it may have happened on December 21, 2012) I’ve noticed little things that happen, or little things I’ll remember just a fraction of a bit differently. And no, the Mandela Effect doesn’t explain these occurrences. If you don’t know what the Mandela Effect is (or is not, who knows?) you should look it up.

And the date I referenced: 12/21/2012? Ring any bells? That’s when Terrence McKenna had predicted that time travel would be invented. It’s also the last date on the popular “Mayan Calendar” (the end of another Galactic Cycle, roughly 26,000 years). It’s also the winter solstice. Many thought it would be the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it.

And then nothing happened. Time kept moving. Invisible to us as it always had been. Or was it slightly different? I think now that it may have been.

I wouldn’t have noticed, because I was out searching for the thousands of time machines that Terrance McKenna said might “instantly appear, having come back through time to witness the first journey into time.” What a heavy thought that was. I wasn’t actually out searching. I forgot that it was happening. I was sound asleep at 5:12 CST on 12/21/2012.

Two days later, I came into work, looked at my boss, and said, “The world was supposed to end. What happened?” He looked up after a bit, obviously concerned, and said, “What?”

Seriously though, what I was saying two paragraphs before has me stunned. The things that I am remembering are just a fraction of a bit different. It’s not an everyday kind of thing either. It may have happened five or six times during this decade, since 2012, of course. It’s been ten years. Hard to believe. I don’t think it’s my mind starting to go, either. I’ve had family, on both sides, that have suffered from Alzheimer’s and Dementia. I may well succumb to one of those someday.

That wouldn’t explain these things I’ve noticed. If that were the case with me in my fifties, now, then with that slow of an onset, I’ll be 108 years old when it finally puts me under. I’m okay with that. There’s only one way that I think actual, real, split-second time travel could be going on.

Most of us, probably almost all of us, are simply not allowed to know about it. We’d figure out how to screw it up, anyway. Am I right? That is the only thing that I can say, “Yes, that would explain it for me.” It makes sense that they (whoever they are) would hide it from us. Think of the implications if the average person were turned loose in time.

I’m so glad I saw that image above. What a great triggering device. I’m also glad you read up to this point. If you didn’t, that’s not cool. Go back to where you skipped ahead and start over.

Thanks for reading. I hope you got a good laugh or two. I hope you thought deeply about the intricacies of time travel. Mostly, I hope you enjoyed it. I know I did.

If you like, you can hover and click below to see an older essay about time. It has a scientifically proven way to travel in time. Spoiler alert, it’s very small amounts of time, depending on how far you are willing to travel; but it works, they say.

I remember it being very emotional for me to write. I talk about the era I would travel to if I could. I’ll understand if you don’t read it right now. After all, I’ve got a good idea about how valuable time really is.