We recently saw the movie “Interstellar”, and without giving too much away about it, a central theme is relativity in astrophysics addressing time. The scientific concepts presented were fascinating (and apparently, largely accurate), particularly with regard to ideas about time travel and dimensions beyond our experience. At its heart, the film was about people and relationships, transcending our ideas of time past, present, or future.

As we undertook our time compressed trip to see my family in Nebraska to gather for some holiday celebrating, I found myself thinking about the film as we drove hundreds of miles through what seemed to be a planet of wind, fog, and ice, otherworldly at times. Going down the highway, I thought of I-29 as my own means of time travel- sometimes thinking of childhood days, medical school, or other random occurrences (sometimes, just a previous trip). I might land on 1966 or 1986, maybe just for a moment, but always going through the “wormhole” (again, see the movie) ultimately back to today.

The cold solstice is delivered today as we make our way home. Time seems short as the sun has set before 5 o’clock. I can’t change time, but it is relative, and my cinematic stellar silvery road runs home- a continuum of time and memory of all the worlds I’ve seen.