For all those who attended the funeral of Dr Hywel Bernard Lewis in February 2023, I am pleased to now be able to share as promised, the full version of his short story, A Matter of Time, kindly provided by his family. The condensed version is displayed here, the fiull version is via the link at bottom of page.
'A MATTER OF TIME' - CONDENSED VERSION
Background. When aged about 12, after spending several weeks in bed with a serious illness, on recovery Dad was dropped off by my grandfather in Penllergaer to engage in his passion of studying nature. Whilst out in the fields at the moment when a curlew flew up in the air Dad had an experience which came out of the blue. He said this experience was impossible to put into words but the closest he could say was that it was a moment where everything was present in that instant. I guess a type of "oneness with the universe". Dad said this experience stayed with him throughout his life
In the 1960s Dad felt inspired to write a short story which was based around this experience. The story is called ‘A Matter of Time” and centres on a character called 'Billy', a government scientist.
A Matter of Time One fine summer’s day whilst in his woodshed at the bottom of his garden, surrounded by lush green growth overlooking the sea Billy fell into a deep sleep. Time started to accelerate, night and day followed with increasing rapidity, then the seasons, until everything seemed to be a vague mist which eventually formed into an Arctic landscape. The sea was a vast expanse of ice stretching to the horizon and the land was covered with deep snow. Dotted here and there were huge towers. Between the towers were glass like domes and a door silently opened in the side of one of these. Billy floundered through the snow towards this dome as quickly as he could manage. Dazed and confused Billy entered and went down a short corridor underground to a large oval room. One end of the room consisted of black, empty space. A woman there, named Melos, indicated that Billy should sit in one of two chairs facing the empty space whilst she sat in the other. Gradually Billy felt calmer. The woman seemed to radiate a sense of peace so that he felt quite at ease, just saying nothing. After a period of time which to Billy could have been an instant, or a thousand years, it didn’t seem to matter which, the woman said in a clear, pleasant voice, “Welcome to 3000AD”. This extraordinary remark did not perturb Billy. He was distracted by the amazing sense of infinite peace and power within and yet transcending everything. Vista after vista of infinite peace seemed to open up to his inward eye. He was aware of the woman’s remark but, like everything else he was seeing and hearing and touching and all his memories also, all seemed like flecks of foam on the surface of a limitless ocean. Billy then had a discussion with Melos, and she advised him he’d inadvertently strayed into a different civilisation. It was a civilisation where everything was interconnected so there can be no deceit, no lies, no misunderstandings. People in their civilisation were dedicated to an ever increasing realisation of infinity. Billy felt his overwhelming sense of self-importance diminishing rapidly in the face of the vistas of time and space which were open to him. His absorption into this new awareness caused him to feel that the universe, of which he was an inhabitant, was just one of an infinite series of universes, each one generating the next, through the development of self-replicating living forms. As he contemplated this enormous panorama of universes, he understood that the Source of it all was dwelling in every event of every universe, and can be realized by any mind anywhere, at any time’ if a mind so chooses. As this knowledge dawned on him, the terrain of 3000AD gradually faded away and was replaced by the familiar surroundings of his little wooden hut at the bottom of the garden, overlooking the sea.
As he went outside his shed he looked with renewed joy and love at the world, in its pristine glory as it emerges from eternity to become and disbecome in time.
By Hywel Bernard Lewis
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