I appreciate your characterization of distance as a chasm almost of desire rather than simple space between objects. There is a Buddhist loan of sorts that asks...
When we want something, and achieve it ...are we happier because we achieved it or are we happier because we have relieved the pressure of the desire.
That's a valid consideration to have – and one that I think we often have preemptively, which by itself may prevent us from ever reaching the goal. We simply fear the clarification of whether this was really the right goal to strive for; fear that disappointment it could lead to. Of course, the sudden lack of purpose when the journey ends is also a valid fear.
Actually, I don't think that humans are very good at having distant dreamerish goals. Perhaps this is why we often give in to the temptation to go for the easy wins, pick the low-hanging fruits, etc., without ever really moving towards the dream. A reason for so many writers to never publish that novel, for instance.
Makes me feel the sense of vast distance that uniquely accompanies loneliness and loss ... Odd how the sense of distance is affected by mood and circumstance
Thanks for your reflection. Yes, indeed, distance only becomes bigger when we cannot see how to overcome it; when we know that our efforts cannot do much to even limit the distance. When the goal is clearly just an unreachable dream.
I have met people in my life who, at times, sort of leave Earth, mentally, and are then being helped by various treatments to get back. My thought is that there is such an element in all of us, not treated, inherently human. Distancing us from the goals we have, making us helplessly run in circles without a chance to reach them, even though we want to, but our skills and tools are not enough – and feeling how this is in us, that nothing from the outside can help.
That feeling of loneliness, not directly caused by the lack of other people but by the uncrossable distance, is the most lonely loneliness. The longing that cannot be fulfilled. The distance between people, like the distance between the elementary particles of an atom. Like the Moon, circling around the Earth without ever allowing contact.
I appreciate your characterization of distance as a chasm almost of desire rather than simple space between objects. There is a Buddhist loan of sorts that asks...
When we want something, and achieve it ...are we happier because we achieved it or are we happier because we have relieved the pressure of the desire.
That's a valid consideration to have – and one that I think we often have preemptively, which by itself may prevent us from ever reaching the goal. We simply fear the clarification of whether this was really the right goal to strive for; fear that disappointment it could lead to. Of course, the sudden lack of purpose when the journey ends is also a valid fear.
Actually, I don't think that humans are very good at having distant dreamerish goals. Perhaps this is why we often give in to the temptation to go for the easy wins, pick the low-hanging fruits, etc., without ever really moving towards the dream. A reason for so many writers to never publish that novel, for instance.
Makes me feel the sense of vast distance that uniquely accompanies loneliness and loss ... Odd how the sense of distance is affected by mood and circumstance
Thanks for your reflection. Yes, indeed, distance only becomes bigger when we cannot see how to overcome it; when we know that our efforts cannot do much to even limit the distance. When the goal is clearly just an unreachable dream.
I have met people in my life who, at times, sort of leave Earth, mentally, and are then being helped by various treatments to get back. My thought is that there is such an element in all of us, not treated, inherently human. Distancing us from the goals we have, making us helplessly run in circles without a chance to reach them, even though we want to, but our skills and tools are not enough – and feeling how this is in us, that nothing from the outside can help.
That feeling of loneliness, not directly caused by the lack of other people but by the uncrossable distance, is the most lonely loneliness. The longing that cannot be fulfilled. The distance between people, like the distance between the elementary particles of an atom. Like the Moon, circling around the Earth without ever allowing contact.