We made the time machine because we had a big box we could fit inside of (again, it was the obvious thing to do) and because before the start of the year some things happened that would never happen - and I mean NEVER happen. Except that they did. And while we spent hours making lists in crayon of possible reasons these things did happen and other lists (also multicolor) about how we could fix the things that did happen (snowstorms, magic potions, decoys), we realized that something bigger had to be done. We simply had to go back in time and make some changes so that for real these things would NEVER happen.
Unfortunately, we never quite got our time machine to work. Perhaps it was because we didn't get the wiring right... or because there weren't any wires to begin with. I am convinced it was because we never got the sound effects right. We experimented with different variations, and had much fun doing it, but the "situation" stayed the same, our couch got desecrated (long story, but it was OUR couch), and we just had to wait it out.
At gan right now, thanks to Shufersal online (supermarket delivery), we have an oversupply of large boxes. They aren't as big as our time machine was, but maybe I could connect two or three to make something work. All I would need is some Yiddish newspapers or maybe some old Jerusalem Posts would do the trick just as well.
I am just as wise as I was my senior year. Or maybe I'm wiser. Though sometimes I actually think I was wiser then, but maybe life was just simpler. Actually life was much simpler. Cardboard box time machines are a thing of the imagination, though imaginations rock, so cardboard box time machines rock too.
I still think it would be nice to have one again. Isn't it a nice thought to pretend just for a moment that you can crawl into a box, tap a bunch of colored shapes made out of construction paper, make a series of beeping and whirling noises, and pretend for a moment that it's possible to get a do-over? To backtrack just a few minutes? To even just experiment with how something could have gone differently.... or been avoided entirely?
I still have plenty of crayons and markers around and big sheets of paper for list making, but snowstorms are a bit more of a stretch here in Israel than they were in Maryland, and I'm not so sure how relevant a solution it would be for recent dilemmas in my life. I might just have to stick with the "live and learn" mantra. Isn't that what grownups always told me though? And being a grownup is lame.
I think I'll just go ahead and build myself another time machine - for all the things that would never happen (but maybe did anyway), could have happened, should have (or shouldn't have) happened, or would have just been plain cool.
