A Moment In Time

I thought about rambling this evening, letting whatever came into my mind be the focus of my thoughts, or as the case may be, the absence of thought. I sat looking at the latest wallpaper photograph on my monitor and wondered why it had been my choice over all the others. At the risk of being redundant I’m posting this picture once again. Click on the image, save it to file and then make it your wallpaper design for the purpose of testing my idea; just go along with me; won’t cost you a dime.

I should explain that by increasing the size of this photograph, making it proportionally larger so as to fill the screen and be larger than the original dimensions, something happens which I am unable to explain rationally. Time stands still as long as I look into that mirrored image with the fog hanging just as it was Sunday morning on the way to my meetings, the red light half a mile behind me remains at its center. I feel myself sitting on the side of the country road with a mild chill in the air looking across the interior of my car, peering into the passenger side mirror preparing to take the photograph and time means nothing. My finger hovers over the button on top of the camera as I gather the image in the view finder. If the photograph is brought back to normal size time resumes its relentless march. I’m back in the present, sitting at my computer with only a photograph; how is that possible?

I wonder how that schism works or is it truly a mechanism by which time was altered? I know my daughter can explain, in mathematical terms, why it is centrifugal forces align in relation to a presumed center in such a way as to be an exact formula. The language of physics is most precise and while I am not schooled in that area I am comfortable knowing that certain rules are followed throughout the universe, a universe which I’m part of.

I watched the movie, Star Trek Insurrection, which had some interesting moments which tie in with my thoughts, Moments in Time. Picard was talking with a woman whose planet offered a unique life regenerating force enabling them to live in youthful appearance for centuries. The conversation permitted a glimpse of how life might be in the eternities; given the opportunity to live for the moment rather than plan the next day, the next year or plan at all.

The visual extrapolation used in the movie showed a hummingbird suspended above a flower, nothing spectacular about that; except upon careful observation it was clear the beating wings of the hummingbird now appeared much slower, as if time had been altered. The idea of freezing a moment in time for as long as was desired, or as long as required, as was the case later in the movie when life was hanging in the balance, often enters human consciousness.

Last week I wrote and posted an article, Image Restoration and included a reference to something called the Bose-Einstein effect, or more properly Bose-Einstein Condensation. Theoretically the natural rules of time and space can be altered at extremely low temperatures permitting light to alter its speed just as energy at the atomic level drops to such a degree at to make all atoms appear to be identical and without distinction. I’m in way over my head as they say, but the idea of being able to alter the natural laws which we take for granted, such as how the speed of light is perceived, slowed even just a little, permits our minds to operate in wild abandon toward realities which might be possible.

Harry Potter had a huge wall mirror which permitted him to stand next to his parents, to be a family as if they had not been destroyed by “him who is not to be named”. It was dangerous to stand with the forces which were set in motion, that mirror which halted progress for the individual, pleasant as it might be to remain embraced by those strong feelings; individuals were not intended to remain in such a state but ever moving, ever progressing through this mortality.

Alice entered her looking glass and found all manner of interesting anomalies. Perhaps if we focus with pure intent, as a child unsullied by the rules of physics which will take away such unrestrained ramblings, focus blissfully at that point in the photograph, permitting the image to engulf our sensibilities and overcome those barriers which lock us into normal time with all the cares of the world chomping at our flanks; then maybe we can escape and jump through our own looking glass, if only for short periods it would be worth the effort.

Somewhere the child within screams out and tells us that time travel is possible, that we need only believe in our dreams. Were this not so we couldn’t enjoy fantasy tales which permit characters like Peter Pan to remain a boy while Wendy grew up to be an mother and then a grandmother. Our trips into the future or the past require minor breaks from reality, or at least the known rules of science as have been accepted and understood. The wonderful experiences which are possible when our minds recognize potential variations in those known rules and laws make for dreams and the ability to perpetuate moments in time.

Now, go away and let me sit here on the side of the road, the engine of my green Z-3 coupe purring away while I’m enjoying the quiet natural sounds next to this hay field with the mist, which seems to permeate everything around me, is forming droplets on the top most edges of my mirrors. I wish to remain here, suspended in time a little while longer and not wonder who won in Florida or what information was given during the State of the Union address.