The Art of Time Travel
Toast Masters 5-7 Minute Speech Given 9-14-19
I am here to share a rare gift with you, a key to
adventure and wisdom, that begins with the word—imagine. In the blink of an
eye, you have been transported to another galaxy where there are super-heroes.
The most powerful is Gift-Master. He has selected you to be ambassadors and
offers to endow you with one superpower of your choice to use for good on our
planet. What would you ask for?
Today, I will pass
on to you my superpower, which I consider an extraordinary gift from God—the
ability to travel through time. Before I share this gift with you, you need to
understand the nature of time and time-travel.
According to
Einstein’s theory of special relativity, time slows down or speeds up depending
on the speed at which you move relative to something or someone else. If you
were zooming across the Milky Way Galaxy approaching the speed of light, inside
the safety of a comfy spaceship, of course, you would age much slower than your
friends on Earth.[i]
GPS satellite
technology, equipped with very accurate clocks, provide evidence that supports
the theory. The satellites’ orbital velocity above the Earth, relative to us
crawling along on the surface, and the effects of gravity make their clocks
gain 38 microseconds a day. Engineers must make adjustments accordingly.[ii] Though
this evidence supports the ability to travel forward through time at an
accelerated rate, it does not support the ability to travel back in time.
Regardless,
scientists are fascinated by the concept of traveling back and forward in time.
Many have developed theories about how it could or should be done.
Unfortunately, their ideas are way too complex and impractical.
- Wormholes
- Circling around a black hole
- Time Machines that would precisely control extreme gravitational fields to bend time back upon itself
The evidence we
experience reveals that we are all time-travelers on a set pace forward. At
conception, we enter time and space; we live and age as we travel forward in
time and leave it behind at our death. But there is an alternative outside the
bounds of science. It is an art.
Over the years,
through practice and experience, I have mastered the art. From my early
childhood, I traveled back to ancient times from Egypt across the Red Sea
through the wilderness with Moses and the Hebrew people. I heard a donkey talk
to the prophet Baalam. I watched David slay Goliath and lived among the chosen
virgins, including the future Queen Esther, in the Palace of King Artaxerxes of
Persia. I have walked with Jesus during his ministry along the shores of
Galilea, heard his teachings while sitting at his feet in Peter’s house in
Capernaum. Sobbing, I witnessed his horrific crucifixion. I traveled through
the Roman Empire from Israel to beyond Hadrian’s wall in first-century
Britannia. I have lived in a Scottish castle and wandered the highlands during
the middle ages. A native American Iroquois longhouse near the Hudson river was
my home in the 17th century. I was caught in an 1861 Civil War battle in
Missouri. These are only a handful of my adventures into the past.
As to my adventures
in the future, I know only the general direction of it, and many possible
variations. Dreams, plans, goals, and hopes for the future take me there. My
decisions, (in the present), are based on what I have learned from the past,
plus projected outcomes of plans analyzed for feasibility.
Do you yearn to
know and experience history or the many possible paths of the future? Then use
your new superpower.
Using it for
time-travel, unlike Hollywood or scientific versions of time-travel, is safe.
Though you don’t need devices to take you, you do need tools to prepare you.
They are:
- The Bible
- Museums
- Libraries filled with history book, archeological books, biographies, autobiographies, novels, and epics written long ago
- Memories - Those of your great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents, and your own
- Tour guides, pastors, teachers, friends
- More...
These tools are
travel guides, but the trip occurs when you imagine being there. Imagination
recreates the past and designs the future here in the present. Once you allow
your imagination to take you back or envision the future, then allow logic and
practical applications from your own experience to fill in details.
This superpower,
unlike Hollywood or scientific versions of time-travel, is safe. Your journeys
can help you (and maybe the world) learn from the wisdom and mistakes of the
past to set a better course for the future.
Now that you know
the keys to time-travel use it wisely. Use it often.
[i] Elizabeth
Howell, “Time Travel: Theories, Paradoxes, & Possibilities,” Space.com,
November 14, 2017, https://www.space.com/21675-time-travel.html
[ii] Elizabeth
Howell, “Time Travel: Theories, Paradoxes, & Possibilities,” Space.com,
November 14, 2017, https://www.space.com/21675-time-travel.html