When It Doesn’t Work
July 14, 2011 in Blogs
Our temporal anomalies Examiner series tries to figure out an aspect of how time travel works in the current movie that is poorly addressed and rather critical to the plot. A Sound of Thunder part 14: the mechanism asks how the travelers return to the future–does the time machine travel with them, or does some device in the future bring them back when they call, or does that device in the future open a door and hold it open for some predetermined length of time? We are not given an answer, but led to believe different things at different points in the movie.
I am not entirely mentally sharp at the moment, as there are too many disruptions and responsibilities on my plate, largely in relation to providing transportation for three people who have to be in different places at different times and have to come back at different times, although that two of them have to be picked up at the same time and are a good twenty minutes apart also complicates matters–as does the fact that none of us have much money and the gas goes fast. But the more complicating problem is that by the time I’m settled to doing something, I have to leave yet again; and tonight is rehearsal, which puts another hole in the schedule. I’ve already overstayed my time here–I’ve got to run.
–M. J. Young
Sandor said on July 16, 2011
If you are surrounded by people who drain you then you should not allow them to be part of your life. One thing of advice most successful people will tell you is only surround yourself with positive people and avoid the unlucky and unfortunate. It seems to me that you do the opposite on a continual basis.
JohnA1nut said on July 16, 2011
There are things in life more important than success.
Sandor said on July 17, 2011
If success was to be had these things wouldn’t be happening to this man. I think if 3 people are relying on you for rides then you are really mixed up with the wrong people.
JohnA1nut said on July 17, 2011
Or he has 3 friends, which is more than I’ve got.
M. J. Young said on July 18, 2011
Thanks for the advice, Sandor.
On the immediate, it should be noted that the three people are not identified because members of my household prefer not to be made public figures by inclusion in my blog, so I generally identify them rather cryptically. However, one of them is my wife, and her dependence on my for transportation is because when we got down to one car she did not want me stranded at home while she was at work. One is my number four son, who is still figuring out his direction in life and is not really that far behind his three older brothers for his age. The third is perhaps a charity case in some sense–he is a friend of my sons, who gained a full scholarship to the local community college just as his mother died and his father inherited property a thousand miles away, so we offered him a place to stay while he finishes school. His transportation need at the moment is because his own car died and between getting parts and getting money to pay for the repairs it’s going to be a few days before he can have it back on the road; but he’s provided transportation for us when our car was dead.
On the broader question, though, indeed we have lost much over the decades to people who were a drain on our resources. Some of them have also done much for us, and it would be difficult to say whether the books were ever balanced–and completely the wrong question. What I have learned, partly from life and partly from studying scripture, is that the point of life is for us to learn how to love others, and that inherently means being willing to take risks and make sacrifices for the benefit of people who whether for lack of ability or failure to care will never repay what they owe. Sure, successful people will tell you that part of the secret is to associate only with people who benefit you; but Jesus made the point that if you are only kind to those who can repay you for your kindness, you have failed to be kind at all. Real love for people means helping those who will never repay you, not because there is some chance that someday someone will, but because you can choose to be either a selfish person motivated by personal gain or a selfless person motivated by concern for others, and it is the latter type that God is trying to form in this world to be part of His family in the eternal future.
I have no idea whether that’s any help for you, but that really is the point of the Christian message, and I would be a hypocrite if I were to exclude from my life people who were of no benefit to me while claiming to embrace the message of Jesus.
Thanks again for your comments.
–M. J. Young
JohnA1nut said on July 18, 2011
Wasn’t it from “It’s A Wonderful Life” Jimmy Stewart gets a card that reads “No man is poor who has friends” or something similar?