Into Infinity

Preface

As requested by various primary school teachers and university professors at the 16th Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women in Australia in 2019, I translated a story created from texts from ten-year-old students (grade 4) who attended my philosophy class in 2019 and am making a translation of the text available here. They were so motivated and excited about the subject “Into the Infinity of Space and Time”, that I asked each of them to write a story, not more than one page. They did. And I tried to combine these stories — the text that I wrote to combine their stories is printed in italics below — so that we now have one big story about what we experienced during this journey.

Chapter 1

Journey With Ms Wurst And Lasse

I was in a phone box on a journey with Ms Wurst to outer space. Suddenly something happened: I saw an alien monster, and the alien was called “He”. He even spoke German and said: “Shall I show you Saturn? My whole family lives there: grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, mom, dad, my 100 siblings…..”

Suddenly I was gone. — Completely. No idea, what had happened. I sat there and couldn’t believe my eyes. What was that? Just a moment ago I was in the phone box with Lasse and the alien monster He, and now I was sitting on my trike, on the right and on the left of me, there were rape fields and in front of me, a Tyrannosaur Rex in a purple cape was blocking my way. I must have been dreaming or not? But before I could think this thought to the end, the T-Rex hissed….

In Another Dimension:

It’s me, Hallilo, I wanted to find out whether the universe has an end. So I took off with my spaceship — of course with a built-in kebab shop.

Diary Of Captain Hallilo:

In a few minutes it will start! Day 1: We start the engine and we are eating a kebab. Now I am in outer space. With increased speed I fly further and further.

Day 2: We have reached maximum speed. But, what is that? The alarm is going off. We are too fast!

Day 3: Due to our speed, we have travelled into the future. I see a meteorite that is hurtling towards the earth. Quickly, I go back into the past, and tell them about this on earth.

20 years later, the meteorite could be stopped using missiles!

… the T-Rex was still hissing, and I couldn’t move. Crap, I thought, hopefully Lasse and He, the alien monster, will realize that I am no longer in the phone box and they will go into search mode to save me…

Somewhere

The Bus In Outer Space

I flew with a battle bus and I wanted to land in “Tilted Towers”, but all of a sudden a volcano erupted. The bus driver quickly drove back. But, on the way back, an bad storm started, and it hurled us into outer space.

Suddenly, I saw an alien coming towards me. He gave me an ice-cream. But the ice-cream was poisoned. After eating it, I felt very sick. After about 30 minutes, I suddenly woke up. Then I said to myself: “Phew, it was only a game!”

This stupid hissing T-Rex is now waving its tail. What does it want? What I want, in any case, is to go home, I thought, but no way. I couldn’t get away, and Lasse and He had probably long forgotten me on their trip with that phone box…

The Lifelike Dream

I was on a plane and suddenly something happened: The pilot was not careful and “wham” the plane was flying directly towards a black hole. Nothing happened. Silence. But wait! The front part of the plane had been torn off … I didn’t know how, but we had survived.

All of a sudden, we met a big monster: Partly it looked like a fish, partly one couldn’t describe it. We tried to talk with it, but it didn’t understand us. It picked us up — one after the other and took us in its arms. Then it brought us into a different universe. There, time moved backwards. We changed into creatures of outer space. “Will we ever get back?” “I don’t know!” “Come with me”, the creature said, that looked half like a fish. “We can understand you!” “Yes, I will bring you into wonderland.”

Until this day, I don’t know whether this was reality or a dream!!??

“If you wag your tail, then you are a very, veeeeery nice T-Rex”, I talked to this huge baby. Obviously, it found my voice gorgeous and bowed down and slobbered on me. Slurp, was the sound it made, and its huge tongue licked me. Oh no,….

In A Different World

I pressed a button. Then there was a big bang. I was in outer space and in front of me there stood a strange little creature. The creature said: “Welcome to outer space”. It seemed to speak in different languages at the same time. Strange, it sounded like echoes. I asked: “Who else is speaking?” The creature responded: “I will not tell you!” Again it seemed that there were different voices…. thousands of echoes … I kept on going….-

Meanwhile, I was soaking wet from the slobbering tongue. The T-Rex grinned — at least it looked like that — and it dropped its cape on me. At least then I could dry myself. Then the T-Rex sat on the back of my trike; this almost flattened my trike. “Off we go”, it hissed. “Well, if it will work with this weight on it.….”

I Was Flying on a Snail

I was sitting on my snail and a storm came. The storm dragged us into it. Then we were in dinoland.

At 10 o’clock I woke up and saw a Stegosaurus in front of me. I got up and climbed on my snail and off we flew … While that happened, I saw very dangerous dinos. At the end, I was back home again. I had been dreaming until 11 o’clock.

The trike moaned and groaned. Don’t know if this is going to work, I thought, but I didn’t say anything else. The T-Rex was relaxed. That was the most important thing…

The Black Sky

Yesterday I dreamt that I woke up and looked at the clock. It was 12 pm. However, the sky was black. And suddenly I was absorbed into it and all of a sudden I was in the year 1700. Everyone looked strange… Suddenly something hard hit my head, and I fell over and woke up. All the houses had gone. Why? I wanted to find out. What had happened here? And then there was a creature. But I couldn’t see what it was and I really woke up.

The T-Rex and I were still driving with my trike. Amazing, that it was able to drive. But the whole situation was absurd. Again, I thought how great it had been in the time machine, the phone box, and what the boys were currently doing. Well, Lasse and the alien. Who knows whether aliens are boys or girls, and I had not asked. Doesn’t matter. So, let’s go on.…

The Day With The Dinosaurs

I was flying through time in my cardboard box. On the way, I saw my parents when they still were children! I asked myself where the dinosaurs were. There! There was the time of the dinosaurs. I had to go there. I flew straight there and dashed in. Oaaah, amazing! Everywhere dinosaurs were walking or flying. I wanted to explore everything and look for a place to sleep, when I realized that I had forgotten the bag in which I kept my food, drink, and my three mice. Now I really had to go …

Wasn’t that Nika? She was sitting in a cardboard box. But in this very moment she had disappeared again, and the T-Rex didn’t let me stop …

Under The Regime Of Frogs

Yesterday I flew with my motorbike through the galaxy. However, suddenly a vortex appeared and I was sucked in. When I regained consciousness, I saw how frogs were arresting humans. I tried to escape, but I was caught. In prison I saw many humans, but they weren’t as intelligent as before. Then I made a big mistake and I provoked the frogs. They became angry and wanted to execute me. But then Superman came and liberated the humans. He created a vortex to rescue me. So I moved into the vortex and suddenly I heard my mom. It had all just been a dream.

“Tjark! Hey, is that you?” We passed frogs, and the T-Rex warned me to hurry. Then he was gone.

With A Clock Through Time

Paul had about 200 clocks. All of them ticked right. Except one. Whatever he tried, the clock didn’t tick right. Someday, every clock has to tick right, but not this one. He thought, if I cannot put it forwards, then maybe backwards.

After that day, nothing was normal anymore. He woke up. Something had changed. OMG! He was three years old. Paul could think like a ten-year-old boy. He thought: “If I turn the clock forwards, then I must come back.” But that didn’t work.

So he had to live his whole life again. The minute hand worked. He spent many years on it and he confronted time and learning….

“Get out”, the T-Rex hissed. Hm, what would happen now?

The Max And Ben Galaxy

A normal boy called Max built a rocket out of scrap metal with his friend Ben. They wanted to take off in the morning. When dawn broke, Ben was already waiting for Max at the rocket. After take-off, they flew five kilometers high. All of a sudden, a cyclone appeared and pushed them into outer space. They passed Mars. Then suddenly a black hole appeared in front of them and pulled them in. Max said: “Look!” In front of them, a new galaxy appeared. They called it the “Max and Ben galaxy”!

Was it all only a dream?

Like I was in a bad dream is how I felt. The T-Rex demanded that we get out, wrapped itself in its cape and padded forward. I had to follow. My beautiful trike. To simply leave it here in the middle of nowhere…

With A Time Volkswagen Type 2 Van Into The Future

One day I had an idea: Why not rebuild our VW van into a time van? I bought everything I needed… with mom’s money….

I built everything together, and after some days it was ready.

And then I flew into the universe. “Wake up, Selim! Wake up! Go to school!”

And so I sadly got up. But then I had the idea, that I am going to really try that, and that I am going to build it one day.

Isn’t that Selim?! In a VW van? Is he already able to drive? Does he already have a driver’s license, and what is he doing here? “Wait!” But he had gone.

I flew into the infinity of time with my cuddly toy “Bunny”, into the future, right into the year 6324. I lived in a world in which I could move from one country to another in one second. I lived in Kiel on Mars.

By that time I was now 4315 years old and I lived in Kiel, Central City, as the correct name was. It had 37 billion residents and was the smallest planet in the universe. But what it was really about was the time, because I flew into the past, to Kiel in the year 2019. I was sitting in my classroom and in front of me was Ms Wurst. The children who were sitting here said that we would have a bicycle text. STOP! What did I actually look like?

I dreamt I was in Kronsburg again with my 4th graders and was teaching these amazing children again, but then I was ungently woken up by the hissing T-Rex: “Not dream you should. Soon we are there!”

The Dinos In Time

Once upon a time, there was a boy. He was such a fan of dinosaurs, that is, of those animals that died out so long ago. He wanted to spend his life with them. And one day his grandpa told the boy: “I have treasure for you. I buried it for you. In my garden I buried it. Search for it. Meanwhile, I will be in the museum looking at dinos.”

The boy went to his grandpa’s garden and dug and dug. After three hours, he found it: A time machine. He wanted to make it intact. After four months, he managed it. He sat in it and already he was with the dinos. A little dino greeted him. He called it “Rexy”.

Suddenly he heard his mother screaming. She had seen a mouse in the kitchen.

Oh, man, it was only a dream …, but his grandpa winked at him…, so it wasn’t?!

While we kept moving, the T-Rex said: “My name Rexy is, you tiny alien, you.” Rexy? Strange. And alien? Me? I don’t mind. Somehow we all are aliens.

Benn And Olaf

Once upon a time there was a little boy. His name was Benn. He had to go to bed and didn’t want to sleep. But then he fell asleep and he had a crazy dream. He had travelled to outer space and saw aliens. However, all of a sudden, one alien was standing behind him. Benn was frightened. He was speechless. Then he asked: “Who are you?” “I am Olaf, an alien, and who are you?” “I am Benn. Where am I?” “You are in the galaxy and on the planet ‘Hundred 4’.” “What?!?!?! That’s really cool. May I drive with the 767 car?” “A car, what is that? Here, we call it ‘Lalli’…”

“Benn, wake up! School!” Then he realized, he had dreamt it all.

Again Rexy hissed: “Olaf you know?” “Olaf? Never heard of him.” “But a friend of Benn’s he is.” “I don’t know any Benn. And where are we going?” No answer.

Flying High With The Bed!

My bed jolted. I was ten metres above the ground. What now? Well, if I was able to fly, why not through space. Suddenly I saw a bright light shining. I felt drawn towards it. But then there was such a big jerk that I was drawn towards it much more. Then I realized, it was a black hole. In front of my eyes it became dark. When I woke up, I wasn’t me anymore. I was a frog. Honestly, I was the most beautiful frog. I thought my life as a frog was better than my life as a human being. But, sadly, I had to go back. All of a sudden, I was soaking wet. “Are you coming?” Fortunately, it had all just been a strange dream.

But ten years later, it really happened. I was an alien!

Again frogs that we had to run away from. But one frog had a similarity to Emmy. But, could that be? All in all, very strange…

The Mystery Of The 20th Dimension. Series 1, Season 1

All of a sudden I was knocked out. Approximately three hours later I landed roughly. I could see the sun, although it had already set on Earth. Suddenly, a creature came and asked: “What are you doing here?” It looked like a robot. I ran away quickly, into something black. It was a huge monster. I put the pedal to the metal and the monster followed me. There!! My escape: a little hole. I flew into it. The monster stopped. However, I was in a worm hole. I could see the end of it and also a black hole. I disappeared, and the UFO too. Everything seemed to have disappeared. Time, space, everything. Then I landed on Earth. Everything was new. I was in another dimension …

2nd Volume will follow.

Suddenly I saw a phone box. He and Lasse came out. “Your students here they are”, Rexy said and padded away. “Hungry now I am, and eat I will. Back home you must go!” Then Rexy disappeared. He and Lasse came running. “You suddenly disappeared! Where were you? Good that you are back again.” “Good, that you are both here. Let’s fly home quickly. Otherwise we will be late for school.” But luckily we all arrived in time, and none of us had to be put on the “dawdle list” :)

What a trip through the infinity of time and space.

© The philosophers of classes 4a and 4b, Kronsburg primary school, together with Dr. Rotraut Jampa Wurst, summer 2019, Kronsburg/Altenholz