To Ease the Passing of Time

I found him in my garden. He looked like he was lost. He was wearing some kind of funny-looking gown and sandals. I tried to talk to him in English, but he did not understand. I tried French and Spanish, and it was the same. And then he spoke to me in Latin. Since I used to be a priest, I can speak and understand Latin. His was not exactly the type of Latin that I had learned when I studied to become a priest, but I was able to understand what he was saying, and he seemed to be was able to understand me.

He told me his story. He was an old philosopher who lived in Rome two thousand years ago. One day, as he was walking in the country, meditating and reflecting, he found a bottle. He opened it. A genie came out of it, and told him that he could make one wish. The philosopher said that he wanted to go to the future. The genie said to him, “I’ll grant you your wish on the condition that you come back to tell me what it will be like, because, you see, even if I am a genie, I’m not able to travel to the future. Ironically, I can send you there, but I can’t go there myself.” The philosopher told me that the reason he had made that wish was because he wanted to know as much as possible about the future to tell other philosophers.

I asked him, “How long can you stay?” He told me that he had only until the end of the day. I asked him why he had picked my place. He said that the genie told him that he was going to send him to a place where someone would be able to understand him. We walked to my house. “Come on in”, I said. I made coffee and heated up leftover Chinese food from my last meal in the microwave oven.

Since he didn’t have a lot of time, I thought that the best way to go about it would be to go on YouTube. I showed him a little bit around the house. He asked me if he could take a shower. I gave him a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a pair of slippers way too big for him. And then we went down to the basement. I turned on the TV and said YouTube. I showed him cars, planes, helicopters, submarines, cruise ships, bridges, highways, hospitals, tall buildings. He was speechless. He could not believe his eyes. And then I asked YouTube to play music: Mozart, jazz, salsa, gospel, etc. I showed him people dancing, skiing, and doing all kinds of crazy things. He was glued to the screen. He could not find the words to express his amazement.

And then he asked me. “Are there any bad things like wars and violence?” I told him that over the centuries a lot of bad things had happened. I asked YouTube to show him the bad stuff: the wars of religion, the Inquisition, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, the gulags, the torture in Chili under Pinochet, the Vietnam War, Rwanda, Isis, Syria, etc. I told him about the discovery of America, and the slaves brought from Africa to pick sugar and cotton.

“That was in the past, but what about now?” he asked. I showed him what is going on in Ukraine. I told him how Putin is threatening to start a nuclear war. I showed him the mountains of plastic in the oceans, how pollution is destroying the environment and changing our climate, and how animals are endangered and mistreated. I told him about human, organ and drug trafficking, about the mafia and the street gangs; I told him about the children in Africa who are kidnapped and brainwashed to be turned into soldiers; and I told him about the children who have to work in mines and sweat shops for sixteen hours a day in Asia and elsewhere.

Since I did not want to leave him on such a bad note, I showed him videos of people who sacrificed their lives for freedom and justice, and just to help others: people who looked after lepers like father Damien, people like Hans and Sophie Scholl who were killed for resisting the Nazis. I could have shown him a lot more examples of generosity and courage, but it was getting late.

Before he left, we had a glass of sparkling wine, and I gave him a bowl of ice cream. He didn’t care too much about the wine, but he really enjoyed the ice cream. He asked me if he could take some back to the past for his nieces and nephew since he did not have any children himself. I told him that the ice cream would melt before it gets there.

I asked him what he was going to tell the genie about the future. He said, “I’ll tell him that there will be a lot of technical progress, and that life will be a lot better and easier for a lot of people. But I will also tell him that there won’t be any real moral progress. I’ll tell him that there will be always be good and bad people.

He asked me if he could use the toilet before leaving. He never came out of the bathroom. I never saw him again. He went back to the past where he came from. Now, I am left with a funny-looking gown that I'lll never be able to wear anywhere, and a pair of sandals way too small for me.