Had dinner with an old friend recently.  One of the things I’ve always maintained about this friend is that we can go months without seeing each other and fall back into an easy camaraderie, almost as if we never parted. There aren’t too many people in my life that I feel that way about.  I’m fortunate to have a few friends like this.

Life has a way of changing our plans, has a way of interrupting the natural flow, has a way of getting in the way of our best intentions.  Those friends that understand this are the ones to hold onto.  For they don’t arrive in your life often.  I’m as much to blame for losing touch, for not spending time with my friend.  See? That’s the mark of true friendship.  I’m so fortunate to have a small tight knit circle of friends who mean the world to me.

We fall into an easy flow.
There is no blockage, no forced conversation.

My friend is a huge Ray Bradbury fan, has in fact met Bradbury on several occasions.  As we talked over dinner I mentioned My favorite Time Travel story EVER and it is one by Bradbury called:
A Sound of Thunder.
Image from:
Tumbler

Jason wanted to know why I connected so deeply with that story.  I told him it was because I understand now that any MINUTE change we make to the past can alter our own future so dramatically as to make it unrecognizable.  The first time I came across that theory was when reading “A Sound of Thunder.”

Jason mentioned that the term:
The Butterfly Effect was later coined from Bradbury’s short story.  I haven’t seen the movie, but Jason told me in one scene of the movie The Butterfly Effect  there was a poster that read Bradbury University, a clear homage to The Sound of Thunder.  Now as I’m sitting here writing this I realize once again how important Science Fiction (SF) TRULY is to the world and it is so disconcerting to me to see the genre relegated to the slums of fiction.  People who don’t appreciate SF don’t understand how many advances were first produced in the SF genre. There far too many to list here.

There was a time when growing up that I so desperately wanted to change certain aspects of my life and I’d stay up at night considering what I would do if time travel were available. However as I said in the previously linked column, I now understand that changing ONE thing in our lives will take our life in an entirely different trajectory.  That thought was first brought up in Bradbury’s time travel story A Sound of Thunder.  If you haven’t read this story, I highly recommend tracking it down.

Thanks, Jason for jarring my memory about why the story means so much to me.

Be Happy!  Be Well!  Be Positive!
Blessings to you.
—
Chris