Time Travel

Time is like a great thread floating around in the cosmic vastness of our minds. It is NOT a straight line. It bends and curves, sometimes doubling over on itself, sometimes curling around and touching itself for only a momment. This is possible because time does not exist as an entity, but as a human perception.

Today, I saw time meet itself with my own eyes. At the Children's Museum there is a Norman Rockwell exhibit. It's fantastically erie. They have, of course, displayed many of Rockwell's original paintings, some prints, and a huge collection of covers from "The Saturday Evening Post." Some of the paintings have been chosen as models for lifesize, three dimentional representations of the paintings (four dimentional if you consider being taken back in time). These painting-scapes turn the pictures inside out - Rockwell used real life to create his paintings and here the paintings are brought back to real life. Okay, they are statues actually, but they are incredibly accurate, even down to the lighting. You can even climb inside and take pictures of eachother.

There is one painting I'd like to tell you about here. It's called "The Problem We All Have," 1964. The creators of the exhibit decided not to create a painting-scape for this one, probably because of it's ability to instill strong emotional reactions. It appears in a special hall for his original paintings. They are quite large and kept under glass. I saw this one at the far end the of hall and was immediately drawn to it. As Divina and I approached (she in the stroller), I noticed a man sitting on a bench directly in front of the painting. He was holding a cell phone that had a digital screen activated. I could see it over his shoulder. Was he taking pictures? That wasn't allowed in this section of the museum. So Divina and I slowly strolled up to this painting and as we passed between the painting and the cameraphone man, I heard a distinct "beep-click." I'm sure he took our picture.

Now, I think about what that picture must look like. He captured time bending and touching itself, 1964 and 2005. I felt it, too, as we passed that picture. We were walking in the same direction as the people in the picture, only they remained in the past, while Divina and I moved forward into the future.

This country has come a long way since 1964. I am so grateful to live in this time, in this place, with these people.

Here is a link where you can see "The Problem We All Have." http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/ij/images/illustra_rockwl.problm.lg.JPG