The Time Machine

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time
Any fool can do it
There ain’t nothing to it
Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill
But since we’re on our way down
We might as well enjoy the ride (…)

Now the thing about time is that time isn’t really real
It’s just your point of view
How does it feel for you?
Einstein said he could never understand it all
Planets spinning through space
The smile upon your face

Welcome to the human race
Some kind of lovely ride
I’ll be sliding down, I’ll be gliding down
Try not to try too hard
It’s just a lovely ride

Secret O’ Life. James Taylor

Back in the days when there was no online streaming, before DVDs or VHS were invented, and certainly no Netflix or Prime, movies came on reels. Not the kind you see on Insta about kittens or cute babies, but film reels in the shape of a wheel that held motion pictures.

My school owned one single movie on reel – or so it seemed, as every year on the last day of school, we got to watch it… year after year. The title of the movie was “The Time Machine” – the story of James, a young inventor in England in 1900, who builds a contraption that takes him to the past, the future, and finally back to the present.

The best part about watching “The Time Machine,” I remember, was neither the weird story of Elois and Morlocks nor the fact that we didn’t have to do any schoolwork. The most memorable thing was when the teacher let the film run backward through the big metal projector, and we got to watch the whole thing again – only from finish to start. In a way, we were doing our own kind of time travel at the end of each school year – a ritual with a hidden meaning I have yet to understand.

I am back from my time in Hong Kong, feeling a bit like a time traveller myself, getting ready for the last couple of months here in Sydney before it’s time to say goodbye. The last term of school, organizing my move, saying goodbye to friends, ticking off the final destinations on my bucket list – it is easy to get caught up in a frenzy to get everything done before I have to leave: go to Brisbane to stalk my favourite Australian author Trent Dalton, drive a car on the wrong side of the road, see a koala in the wild, take that train through the Outback of Australia. Not to forget the teaching, report cards, packing, cleaning… It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed.

A day after my return from Hong Kong, I took a friend of mine to a concert in the city. My favorite singer-songwriter James Taylor was in town, and I was looking forward to listening to the songs that have been part of my life for almost forty years (I am time-traveling again!). I grew up on James Taylor songs and had been to a few concerts over the years.

Arriving at the concert hall in downtown Darling Harbour, we saw a long line of old people forming in front of the entrance, their silver and white hair glowing in the dark. My friend and I, clearly the youngest in the crowd, got greeted by the security guy with the words “Welcome to the Golden Girls Convention”. And this was when it dawned on me that not only had I aged, but so had the audience and, of course, James Taylor himself. We made jokes about walkers and wheelchairs on stage, James throwing his dentures into the screaming crowd at the end of the show when James himself came on stage, and we realized that this concert was a kind of time travel as well. His voice was weak and squeaky, and it took him a while to warm up. But by the second set, James clearly had found his voice, and some of his fans even got up and moved their bodies in a dance-like fashion. Who says you can’t have fun when you are 76?

While James’ voice clearly wasn’t the same as I remembered, his message was louder than ever before: You gotta slow down and enjoy the moment, especially when you get older. The past might be fine memories, and the future something to think about. But it is the present we should appreciate and the experiences it has to offer. Finding joy in the journey rather than fixating on the destination.

During the last few weeks, I was lucky enough to be able to return to some of my happy places here in Australia and enjoy the moment: the beautiful Seven Sisters cottage overlooking the stunning Kanimbla Valley in the Blue Mountains, enjoying a glass of wine in the foothills of the beautiful Mount View mountain range of the Hunter Valley, lighting a fire in the cold nights of the Southern Highlands in the fall. Being grateful for the moment.

The movie “Time Machine” ends with the main character George telling his friends about his adventures while time-traveling and then bidding them goodbye. Filby, one of his friends and still skeptical, returns shortly thereafter to find George and his time machine gone. His housekeeper, Mrs. Watchett, notes that nothing is missing except for three books. When Mrs. Watchett wonders if George will ever return, Filby remarks that “he has all the time in the world.” And so do I. We have all the time in the world.