01.59

The Museum of Possibility displays all that could have been and never was. Julia found drawings and sculptures of imaginary animals and was told by an gangling man named Charles, behind a pair of oddly shaped glasses, that every time an animal, which resembled one of the imaginary ones, was discovered, its drawing was removed from the museum, for the animal was imaginary no more. Some, the man said, believe that those who imagine things have the power to create them, as the more imaginary animals were drawn and sculpted, the more were discovered, in the remotest part of the planet, closely resembling the drawing.

Julia was intrigued. In the architecture section of the building, she looked at drawings and models of buildings and whole islands she could not recollect from memory. Charles continued.

All these buildings have not yet been built, they are here for they are different from anything you see. As a device like this is built, we remove the model,

Charles pointed to a glass chamber placed at the bottom of a building, from which to observe underwater life. Machines of all kinds were displayed, all lacking something to be of true use.

The machine section is similar to a doctor’s waiting room. Here machines wait for someone to visit them and complete an idea that is not yet perfect. As a visitor has an interesting idea for any of the machines to work, he would discuss it with the inventor of the incomplete machine and we would remove it from the display. This is leaving us today.

Charles pointed to a table where a number of plants were connected with pipes and glass jars. Large magnets, painted in red and white, were aligned along the largest of the pipes. Gas lamps were lit above the plants even as full daylight was flowing through the paned windows.

It’s a desalination machine, it has produced small quantities of drinking water from seawater for years and now a young man has come with the right idea for it to work properly. Not being a possibility any more, we are removing it to leave room for other incomplete projects.

Coming home Julia’s head was spinning. She looked around at what was and thought at what could have been and was not yet. She planned to make drawings for Gaia to see and come back with her soon.