Time Travel

"Mom? You know Einstein's theories on time?" Big Kid asked.

I stared back blankly, because, embarrassingly (I guess?), I do not know Einstein's theories on time. I know of them. I think. Kind of. Well, I might. I know that he did something like that.

"Yes?" I offered, not really answering. Should I know this?

"I read that book about it," he added. "I can't stop thinking about it and it boggles my mind to think about it. It bothers me sometimes."

"..." I stared at him. I was still trying to figure out exactly what it was we were talking about it.

"I mean, if time relates to where you are does that mean that everything is going to happen anyway? That there is some way your life is going to go because it's already mapped to go that way and that you won't be able to change certain things no matter what you do because they've already happened in the future? And if so, what's the point of life, then?" He stared at me earnestly, waiting for an answer.

I had (and have) only the slightest, slipperiest of grasps on what he even might be talking about. Poor smart kid got the wrongest mom. She even just used wrongest as a word.

"I...I don't think it means that?...I will have to read the book?" I offered. "Just try not to think about it." It's the best I could do. I've been thinking about it since we had that talk and I'm still not sure what I think. Not sure I want to read the book, to be honest, it would be even more embarrassing if I still didn't understand it then. But that was probably the wrong answer -- imagine if Einstein's mom told him to try not to think about it? I don't know. Maybe she should have.

I did watch Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure with them, since it amounts to the full extent of my time travel knowledge, but, it failed to answer any of life's deeper questions. We're going to have to re-watch the Back to the Future trilogy, pronto.