30
Oct
08

“beauty is timeless”

In 1943, science fiction writer René Barjavel introduced the “grandfather paradox” to discuss the idea of time travel.  The paradox states that if a person goes backwards in time and kills one of his ancestors before they had children, the traveller cannot exist and therefore couldn’t had gone back in time and kill the ancestor.
So the idea of time travel is a very complicated one.

On the other hand, the idea of stopping time is very easy to prove.  Just get on the subway (this is best experienced when you are in a hurry), find a seat, and wait for this announcement when you are in the middle of the dark tunnel:
“Ladies and gentleman, we are being momentarily held by the train dispatcher, Please be patient. We’ll be moving shortly.”

Look at your watch. It’s 1:30.










Look at your watch 45 minutes later. It’s 1:31.

Time stands still when you are stopped in the middle of the tunnel.   But don’t get the wrong idea: outside, on the surface, time goes on as usual and you will be late.

The time stopping phenomenom has caught me off guard today: no iphone, magazines, books… nothing. So I just look at the woman in front of me. She got in at the 14 street/Union Square Station.  About 5’5” in height and a petite figure.  Her shiny brown hair is tied back in a perfect ponytail. Her skin is flawless, not a single drop of makeup. She wears and inpeccably cut camelhair trentch coat with a tight black belt. She seems sad and tired, looking down at the floor of the subway car.  Very slowly, she wipes off some strands of hair from her face, raises her gaze and finds me. As our eyes meet, she smiles. A smile that lights up the dark tunnel. A smile that makes time move at its normal speed again. So the train moves. We arrive at the 23rd St. Station. Slowly, she gets up and leaves.
I will never see her again.

∞∞∞


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