Thursday, February 28, 2008

How far is far?

What's far? I remember Grover from Sesame Street showing the difference between "near" and "far". There was a lot of running and panting involved, and it really seemed he was going very far to explain the difference. But truly, I've now travelled much farther. And yet I still feel "here".

There's an old saying to the effect," No matter how far you go, there you are." I know what that means so well it's depressing.

If I walk 6 miles, that's far. If I bike 80 miles, that's far. If I step aboard a plane and fly 4000 miles, that's far. And yet however far "far" is, I'm still right there. I continue to exist in a type of contiguous line through time, and while distance is interesting, it's rarely (ever) important to the journey.

Any time that I've grown from an experience, it was an inner, personal experience. I could have been crushed by my ex-wife as easily in Moscow as happened in Toronto. I could have found myself broke and homeless in San Francisco or Vancouver as readily as happened in Reykjavik. I could have discovered my love of our underwater planet in Thailand or the Caribbean instead of Malta.

So where ever you are, just be. Just enjoy and experience. There is no magic over the horizon. The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. Need proof? Well no matter how far you go, Blogger can still eat your posts. And no matter how close you are, there's nothing you can do about it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't worry. Be happy.

You sure use a lot of words!

J. D. said...

Love it! And when people are bound by this philosophy, as well as other values and goals, the journey of life is a joyful and more interesting one. (whether it be Quilly's abbreviated form or Morgan's wordy one)

You're right, Quilly! Morgan's philosophy, repeated in various examples and often many words, in order to emphasize common sense, have served him well. (We call it his "Teaching Mode". With his Dad, the decible level of the voice, signifies the "Teaching Mode"... hee-hee)

Morgan, good post!......Mom

I Dive At Night said...

Lots and lots and lots of words! Sure "brevity is wit" and "less is more". "Never use a gargantuan word when a diminutive one will suffice!" All nice, but so much less fun to follow.

Minka said...

Nice post, hard lesson!

Seize the moment, is something we will always regret not doing. Unless it is something like "how many liters of petrol can I drink in 5 minutes!" when we all know that would be such a waste given how expensive it is these days :)

I Dive At Night said...

Minka, there are very few moments in my life I didn't seize. One in particular jumps out though.

In Iceland, isn't the beer still more expensive than gasoline?