I was reading an article written by one of my favorite investigative reporters, Jon Rappaport who I have cited before. I’d like to paraphrase something he said. He tells us imagination has no bounds and that it is the source for the most adventurous explorations. We recognize that imagination can have great impact on the material world and that imagination is non-material and doesn’t obey any laws of physics. Mr. Rappaport likens the difference between reality and imagination to those people who believe life is a museum and in walking through the rooms, many find just one painting to concentrate on and take up permanent residence instead of traveling through hundreds of other rooms full of great art works. He tells us the museum is endless (think about the Tsar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg); the one completed in 1762 by 4,000 people with 460 rooms where many, many great artworks are hung. When we learn how to live through and by imagination, we enter and invent new space and time. By using our imagination, we can solve a problem or even skip ahead of the problem and render it inoperative.

I’d like to include part of a chapter in my current fiction book entitled, ‘Geek to Glory’ because I find it relevant to the theme of this blog. The book is geared primarily to middle school children. Maybe you’ve felt like jumping into the skin of an individual or event depicted in a particular painting. Maybe you’ve gotten caught up in the color and texture and lost a sense of reality for brief moments. Maybe you’ve even gotten lost in time.

And so in this this chapter of my book, the protagonist, a 14 year old boy named Jackson Elderberry Monroe is persuaded to help his grandfather Sylvester (who is dead but can time travel in different realities), to break into an art gallery in order to time travel through a portal in a particular painting.

“My exploration to the gallery has proven fruitful, even more successful than I could have imagined. All the alarm triggers have been cut.” Sylvester said proudly.

But, they’re not going to be happy tomorrow morning when they realize their microwave doesn’t work and their coffee maker is dead.”

“They’ll get over it. We’re off to the future.”

Grudgingly I threw some cold water on my face, checked to see that mom and dad were tucked in with lights out, peered out my bedroom window to see if that goth looking annoying neighbor was coming home in order to lie down in his casket before sunrise. We were on our way to Gallery Aria before you could say Pegasus.

Since the buzzer system was rendered useless, we deftly walked right in through the front door and situated ourselves in front of the portal painting.

“Here’s what you do to gain admittance, so to speak. Breathe slowly in and out to the count of 12. Fill your belly up with air and then from about 3 inches above your navel, pop out your ‘luminescent’ body. It is encased in your own body and has been developing as your DNA was activated. That part of you was waiting for a time when it was developed enough to travel. Here’s your big opportunity to try it out. Your luminescent body can think and see and has all its limbs intact. It is a type of body double but with much more light between its atoms. It’s not at all dense, like you! I meant that in a good way! Now, we’ll stand in front of the painting and eject our luminescent bodies into the painting so a small part of us will be gone. We’ll still be able to function right here in the gallery. Using our ‘L’ bodies, we’ll travel down that lovely path under what looks like oak trees. At the end of the path, we’ll come to a tree whose roots are creeping across the path. That’s where we’ll stop and that’s where we’ll take off to the year 2030. Ya with me kddo?”

“I’m not letting you out of my sight grandpa. I don’t want to be stuck in that picture on the return.”

“Listen, just in case you are. Hang out by the tree and I’ll come claim you.”

“But. If only part of us is going, what’s with the rest of us?”

“Good question. Why not us the time to take a nap in the utility room. The janitor has already been here.”

It sounded this side of dangerous. But I committed or maybe I should be! Can you imagine having a part of yourself stuck in a painting for eons of time, perhaps hung over someone’s fireplace or in a dank attic, as you view what’s out there from a totally different perspective?

If you enjoyed what you read, please visit my website at https://lifesjourneybydesign.com to purchase ‘Geek to Glory’ or find it on Amazon for Kindle and in soft cover.

Tags: Jon Rappaport, Time Travel, Portal, Imagination Winter Palace, Tsar, Geek to Glory