How to Time Travel in a Snuggie…

Okay, first, you gingerly slide your left arm into the right sleeve of that Cubs (I mean Royal) Blue/Sage Green/Burgundy backward fleece robe…

Unfortunately, I regret to inform you that Snuggies do not come with an added time travel feature. However, if you do happen to chance upon one of these so called Snuggie Pub Crawls that I somehow found myself at, you may look around and feel as though you’ve been transported off to Hogwarts or into the future where Jedi meet wookiees. Even funnier than the Snuggified Lincoln Park yuppies was the bizarre scene of quilted bearded men and snuggie adorned animal mascots that I drank in with my eyes while nursing my $2 beer of the month. Maybe you just had to be there… or maybe you just had to be decked out in a snuggie…

Oh, so now I can’t tell you how to time travel but I can tell you that books are a great way to travel, especially for those of you like me on a budget who can’t afford time machines or private jets out to exotic destinations. I was recently recommended The Time Traveler’s Wife by a dear friend of mine. A few days back, I closed the final chapter in the 500+page novel and found myself a bit unsettled. Must’ve been all that time travel by the protagonist Henry, who has Chrono-Displacement syndrome, and was whisked away into the past as unexpectedly quickly as it takes to say A-choo. Audrey Niffenegger does a fine job and is certainly a talented writer, but somehow the book for me lacked that inspirational character transformation or demystification or challenge of my philosophical questions that it just seemed to fall a smidge short. (That sounds like something one of the American Idol judges would say if they read books). But I do love the fact that it is set in Chicago and I could if not picture myself in many of the scenes and locales at least recognize the name. If not, those are going to be added to my list of must-see places in Chicago while I’m here. And time travel, still a very intriguing idea in itself.

When I think of time travel, Hiro Nakamura from NBC’s Heroes and John Locke of ABC’s Lost come to mind.  I for one am a big fan of these two TV series, though I can certainly admit I felt more drawn in during the first seasons more than the current ones. Anyhow, aside from examining the hows and whys of the chronological leaps of these characters, the repeated theme that stuck with me in these shows and in the novel was the idea of destiny. Purpose as a part of destiny, but also the inevitability aspect of our destiny, our pre-destination,  a combination of God, the cosmos, and our tendencies towards certain actions or decisions. Henry, even as he was able to jump back to the day of the accident that killed his mother, he could only watch the horribly depressing scene as a helpless observer. John Locke would probably stand up off his gimpy-leg and say Yes I can… Oh wait… that’s someone else…. he’d say “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” He and Hiro Nakamura are both obsessed with the idea of their destinies, their all-important roles to play that can either save the world or save his fellow plane crash survivors.

Do we often take on that attitude, that view that says I can shape my destiny, chart my path and course through the stormy waters of life? Some of us more than others. Where do we as individuals impact the world around us, or on the flipside,  are  we the ones who become the impacted and how? Well, I can tell you these books and countless shows or stories from others can only tell you so much, and you and I must examine ourselves and the world around us to find our purpose, our meaning, our contribution.

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