Distance

What can you do when the distance between you is measured in thousands of miles?

Today's technology brings us together but means it is easy to distance ourselves from people.

If you want a real face to face that can happen by video calls but you cannot hug anyone or touch them.

We can phone call , we can text , we can send letters , but the fact that it is so easy to send pictures and video call makes us so close but so far away.

Maybe thirty years ago the options were very expensive phone calls , letters and maybe a recorded cassette, and if someone was on the other side of the world you would probably know you may never see them again.

Today with the technology available we can all but touch , but often that feels like falling at the final hurdle.

The problem with distance is that it costs money to surmount and if you don't have money then the distance becomes a veritable brick wall. Even the Rubicon could be crossed.

Thanks to the internet and technology that supports it you can stay in touch with friends wherever they are and also meet new people and become very close to them.

The distance however is still there . The earth is big .

I remember going to Mexico , which thanks to world map makers looks quite small , but it’s a twenty four hour drive from the USA to Mexico City. I live in the UK which is about 450 miles end to end so probably doable by car and motorcycle in a day. So I am used to being able to actually see people who live on the same piece of land as me.

But what when that land is the Cino / Russo / Euro bloc , you are not talking closeness , you are talking extreme distance.

Then there are the Americas where in the same country you can be thousands of miles apart. Australia, India and Africa are the same.

If you actually get into a situation where you wanted to marry someone in your country that was thousands of miles away one of you would have to move permanently. Just the time taken to travel that far would be extremely tiring.

Distance is something that has not really been conquered.

Yes we can fly , we can travel to space even , but these things take time and currently cause inordinate pollution. The ideal solution would be something akin to a Star Trek teleport , but despite technological progress that is not yet an option, although it would be amazing to be able to visit friends I had made easily and conveniently.

On thing about teleports is that if your atoms are disassembled going in and reassembled coming out is it the same you or a clone, and if it’s a clone that must mean that you kill yourself my walking into a teleporter, but I so digress.

So distance can only be surmounted by resolve and time , but money helps. Assuming paperwork can be dealt with you can move internationally to wherever you want to be with whoever you want to be, and if you want to do that you should all get together to pool resources to make it happen.

I think the difference is , now we know it can happen.

I have friends in Germany , Australia , New Zealand who were originally on the UK mainland, that is a fair distance they travelled to make their dreams work.

If this is you , you can do it as well. Distance by its nature is big, but it can be conquered.

So a suitable song will be “The Distance” by Cake.