“Dad's Time Machine”
A short story on the priceless impact of financial independence.
Dad’s Letters
by Kyle Mast, CFP®
When I was five, my dad finished his time machine.
He’d been working on it for years. Long before my younger brothers and I were born.
Over the years, Dad would use the machine in small ways, even as he was building it. But it wasn’t until it was finished that we all saw what it could truly do.
Now, I must explain that the time machine did not work in the way that we often hear of in stories. It could not take us back in time, nor could it take us to the future.
But what it could do... was slow time down.
In those early years, my dad used the time machine on mornings that would have otherwise been busy and frantic. He would turn it on, and slow the time down so that he could stay home and make us all pancakes with peanut butter, syrup, whipped cream, and, of course, sprinkles.
Nearly every week, when my brothers and I had worn our gracious mother’s patience thin, Dad would abruptly switch on the time machine and declare a “dudes day,” slowing the time down so Mama could get away to rest, and so we could spend unscheduled time with our dad.
Every month, Dad would turn the time machine on and take just one of us brothers camping with him. Slowing down the world so we could each just be father and son.
When the rains of winter would come, Dad would turn the time machine to its highest setting, slowing the time down so we could travel to wonderful places, chasing the sun for months.
Dad didn’t just use the machine for our family. He would often use it for others as well. Sometimes slowing time down to be able to help someone in the middle of the day or visit a dear friend who was sick.
Over the years the time machine did not go the way of most things that are built. It did not wear out. In fact, the machine became stronger and more capable with every passing day, as if it had been built with the knowledge that it would some day be needed for something great…
And so, it was in those dark years, when brother got terribly sick, that the time machine’s greatness shined the most. Dad seemed to use the machine on a daily basis in those years, running it at full strength. Stretching, slowing, and almost creating time for him to be with my brother and our family in the long fight to overcome the illness.
My dad wasn’t a superhero, nor was his time machine anything very special. The difference, was that he built it.
And now that I’m grown, and have seen what the time machine can do, I’ve begun to build my own in the hopes that I too can slow time down for the most important things in life, just as Dad did.
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