The Matter of Distance.

The sky was clear again tonight, and the air cold and crisp. It seems that no matter how many times you stand and stare at a clear night sky, the sense of wonderment is undiminished. To many people, I gather, it’s all about the awareness of how tiny we are in the greater scheme of things. To me, it’s mostly about the sheer unimaginable distances involved.

And it wasn’t only the myriad fairy lights of distant suns and planets that caught my eye. To the north of me were the winking lights of three planes outbound from EMA, and to the south were three more, inbound. They seemed oddly in keeping with the mood, since planes are about distance, too.

So it is with people, at least those who are special to me. All distant, even the one of rare inner beauty and sylphan aspect of whose presence I had just been to within a matter of yards. It might as well have been a thousand miles or more, as it is with others.

Helen once said to me that it doesn’t matter whether you’re in the next room to somebody, or a million miles away. If a connection is there, physical distance is irrelevant. I’m sure she’s right, but as I said in an earlier post, sometimes I miss the substance. Human beings are essentially tactile creatures, however illusory the physical aspect might be, and nothing quite makes up for the shot of electricity that seals even a temporary connection when a hand touches an arm. I’ve heard it said that it’s why we invented ourselves.