Earlier tonight I pondered the idea that "everything looks better from a distance" and posted it on my twitter feed with the hashtag "nostalgia." A friend replied to that saying that he could come up with exceptions to that, and I said I wanted a list. That made me think more about my statement and perhaps why I wrote it.
These, my musings:
Things look better from a distance? Maybe because from a distance, there is no commitment to do anything. If a plan is still in the future, it can be changed. If something is in the past, it is set, and cannot be altered, but at least it is from a time and day past. But this applies not just to time. If I see someone in the distance who is attractive, they need not know I see them at all and they certainly need not know how I see them. Distance hides blemishes that can only be seen up close and distance allows for retreat. Distance is an invisible barrier between people that for some creates a sense of security. Some think, or really, I have thought, that if anyone every really got to know me, they would run the other direction and not look back. Distance makes sure that I never find out if that is someone's response, because if they can never get close enough, how would they ever know to run away? I can thus be satisfied in the fantasy that I am loved for exactly who I am by people who do not know exactly who I am. It seems difficult, probably impossible, for a person to love another based on qualities unknown to them.
The sad part about distance? In distance there is only observation of and not true relationship with and to others. In distance there are no true friendships. In distance remains only loneliness.
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