To the Class Studying Time in Measurements of Tom and Khan

The vertical line is "now."

The now when you are all talking about Tom and wondering how he has the time to read all these chapters. The now when you wish you had more coffee. A bagel. The now when you remember your 4th grade teacher. Not his name, but the way he wrote on the chalkboard.

That now.

The horizontal line is the past and the future.

It's where chapter 4, the reading of chapter 4, exists. And the reading of chapter 5 will exist.

You wish you were Tom in the future. The Tom who reads all the chapters. The Tom who takes notes and reviews them every day. In the future, Tom tells a joke about a snail at a barbecue and everyone laughs. Tom narrowly avoids a crash when he swerved out of the path of ducklings. Tom saves ducklings.

You don't.

And Kahn has spent 2 years at the university. His horizontal line says he will spend 2 more and then, then he will go back to Singapore.

You won't. You're not even sure where Singapore is. In the future, though, you will.

You will learn all that you need to learn: where Singapore is, how to finish the chapters, why chapter 4 matters, but chapter 5 does not. You will mark x's on your calendar for all the "nows" you want to remember. Whatever is hard or missing today will be history. You and Tom and Kahn greet each other on the skybridge to the airplane. It's been so long! You haven't changed a bit.