Big Idea

If you're an inventor looking for the next million-dollar idea, here you go! Just give me one of these when you start producing them and I'll be thrilled. I don't want the money, and you'll be rolling in it like Scrooge McDuck as soon as you iron out the final details.

Here it is.  A slow-down machine, like when you replay your favorite scene from a TV show or movie on your DVR, but for real life.  You know what I mean?

It came to me the other night at my 50th high school reunion. And it was based on thoughts I've had other events, unhappy ones such as my parents' funerals, and moments of glee, like when they opened the new Ollie's Bargain Outlet near us.

Maybe this has happened to you. There I was at the reunion, and person after person that I happily recognized (some on sight, some after I peeped their name tag with graduation photo) passed by in a wonderful maelstrom of humanity. It was the same at the funerals, because even at a sad event like there, there is joy from the love that people bring, enough to share with everyone.

And I was going, "Hey, there's Joe! Jane! Tom! Sarah! Lee! Pete! Tim! Susan! Janet!......." and shaking hands and hugging and catching up as fast as I could, but there were also moments when I tucked in the back of my mind the thought that I had to find a minute later to catch up with Sam and Dave and Jerry and Lewis and Dean and Martin. 

The machine will look something like this.

And it's not possible.  People come and go, get swallowed up in eddying pools of other friends and classmates, and you miss them. It's sad.

But as soon as someone patents the Time Freezer Machine so that we can sort out all the moments we want to savor, it won't happen, and there will be no more disappointment in finding that someone said Tom and Jerry just left a few minutes ago.

And if you're that someone who will make this machine a reality, please hurry! We have a 55th reunion to plan for in 2024!