This Is This

If you could freeze time, would you? Seriously. Have the happiest afternoon of your life last forever? Sounds pretty tempting.

I bet after a while it would start to suck. It would fade like the smile while you’re waiting too long to have your picture taken. All the elements of fun would be there, but the soul would gradually dissipate and be gone.

The plants would all die for a start. If it’s sunny they would dry out and if it’s rainy they would drown. Maybe not the ones near you - perhaps you could water them or give them shelter - but all the plants you couldn’t care for would perish and you have to care about that.

So you’d say the afternoon would last forever with variable weather. Plants are OK, job done. What about the guy who empties the bin you threw your ice-cream wrapper into. He’s not going to empty the bins because the afternoon will last forever and the rubbish tip won’t be open tomorrow, because there is no tomorrow. And the other ice cream guy will run out of ice cream. And he’s not going to see his family because he only sees his kids twice a week and this afternoon is going to last forever.

And all this is just to make you happy?

You can’t freeze time. You can’t be a kid forever. You can look homeward but never go back there and it’s OK and there’s always tomorrow.

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