January 6, 2012
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1 "...And I looked up, and lo! The world suddenly stopped!"
2 That's a line from a novel I'm not writing.
3 It's a science fiction novel about time suddenly stopping, and allowing all of us to get off that bus and walk around for a bit.
4 This overworked, insomniacal guy who has spent the past three months hopelessly behind in all aspects of his life awakens at 3:30 a.m. to a glow in his yard. It is a black- and-white glow, like that of a television set from the '50's. It is not bright; the bushes and trees remain in normal darkness.
5 He isn't scared though. He is intrigued. He opens the sliding door and walks out to his patio. He looks forward to seeing something strange.
6 Sitting in the middle of his lawn is a classic UFO. But it isn't ominous; in fact, it is the size of a flattened Volkswagen, only American-retro 50's in design.
7 This guy has been working his ass off for months, and yet he somehow must stay at work fighting impossible deadlines. Everywhere he turns in life, there are demands.
8 We know nothing of his demands and impossibilities, because they are interspersed with nightmares that flash on and off.
9 He isn't scared. That's the weird part. In fact, he seems drawn toward the thing. It seems like a warm glow, and he has a feeling that he should enter it.
10 Suddenly, the door opens, replicting exactly the same kind of door seen in the original The Day the Earth Stood Still, only on a flattened Volkswagen-type level.
11 A small, three-step stairway descends and plops itself clumsily on his lawn. He is barefoot and in pajamas, but he doesn't care. Something compels him to walk up the stairway and move into the UFO.
12 With no fear, he sluggishly walks into the craft, which swiftly closes the door behind him and zooms into space.
13 He is still in a bit of a dreamlike haze, and remains unworried.
14 As he looks around, he sees a console with dials and buttons, right out of an old black-and-white film.
15 He is delighted, like a kid on Christmas morning.
16 It is an amazing ride. It lulls and shifts gently, as though on a cloud.
17 He hears a whirlybird sound. He knows the thing is landing.
18 It touches gently down. The door opens once again. The stairway descends. Everything is in color outside, the same exact sequence that happens to Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
19 He is in a forest filled with wildflowers and puffy clouds.
20 All around him are peaceful things: clear streams, knotty pines, lush fields of grass, and majestic canyons.
21 He sees the magnificence of the world. He sees all the possibilities that can happen once the world decides to stop driving everyone to virtual lunacy. He sees what happens when the world suddenly stops.
22 And it has.
23 He sees a comforter lying in the grass, and walks over to it. He lies on it and it makes him sleepy, but in a gentle way. The rest of the world has stopped. He closes his eyes and thinks about all the madness swirling about his life every single day.
24 The earth, it would seem, has literally stood still for him. He begins to realize how much of his life is frittered away by detail. He begins to think of all of the great quotations by the wisest minds ever to roam the universe.
25 He goofs on Thoreau and Emerson. He slips into a dream.
26 His dream is remarkably nothing. No worries. No demons. No nightmares.
27 His dream is simply a part of his experience, and becomes one with all that is happening. None of it is frightening.
28 All of it is enlightening.
29 The message he receives is this: all of the things back there that others find important aren't as important as everyone seems to think.
30 He doesn't know who is behind all of this, but a voice keeps telling him that it is the "others". He smiles. A hummingbird flits past him and alights on a forget-me-not.
24 But there is no longer any madness here. Just an absolute peace.
25 He isn't afraid of the others.
26 He just knows that whatever he has been doing for the past few months isn't as important as his own well-being, and that of his family and friends. He sleeps, and sleeps, and sleeps for what seems days.
27 When he awakens, he is refreshed. He is again in his yard, in the middle of the night. The crafts is gone. The stars are strikingly bright. He looks over, and his sliding door is still open. He walks gently inside. His feet feel dandy. His head feels cleared. His hope feels strong.
28 He looks at the clock. It is 3:30 a.m.
29 On his couch is the comforter. The heater lights up. The comforter is glowing from the light of his laptop. It is the exact same glow that lit the craft.
30 He climbs under the comforter, closes his eyes, and is finally at peace.
31 He's not sure what it was, but somewhere, he is contented that he learned a valuable lesson about life.
32 He smiles, and drifts off, in the luminescent comfort of his laptop's glow. He finally has time. He finally has time. He smiles.
33 He finally has time.
34 Peace.
~H~
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