Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Scientists that do mind-bonkingly difficult things with numbers on dusty blackboards go ON AND ON about distances. Interstellar distances, they burble through be-tangled mustachios, are SO vast that light itself packs a pretty hefty cut lunch before it sets off. Then for the nonce, the BASTARD scientists pop an LED-encrusted helmet and a webcam¹ on a little droid and shoot it DIRECTLY INTO the vastly dark, silent freezing nothingness on a one way journey² to the place where time began. And if you read the right type of journal, they tell you how it’s feeling about the diode-crushing isolation for months and months before it stops talking to us at all. Not because it dies, but because there is NO COMING BACK. It just goes on & on & on FOR EVER…
It’s increasingly clear I have some jolly strong feelings about our callous treatment of deep space probe droids – and I have some similar feelings about some earthly distances, too. There’s currently quite a large one³ between me and the girl I love. We are displaying quite astounding amounts of patience both with the situation and with each other. It’s not easy. I know of 2 couples who have met over vast distances, both married now. I don’t honestly think I ever gave that the respect it deserves. It’s a phenomenal commitment, and as true a test of your “love” as you could find in many ways.
And it’s not easy. Some days are in fact terribly difficult; the days you KNOW would be absolutely perfect if you could just go home and curl up in each other’s arms – and that’s the one thing you cannot do. Patience worn to the bone, emotions run ragged… there are some tough times where all you can do is rely on the knowing you are loved & cherished. In and of itself that is a great display of faith and trust, to extend that duty of care so far away from where you stand. And the fact that I can do it without a moment’s hesitation is proof enough to me that I have certainly found my one. Yes, some days ARE hard, but one day very soon it will be worth it. I know it in my heart.
So, in conclusion: love passionately and unreservedly where-ever your heart finds its match: there is no distance love cannot conquer. And if you ever meet a scientist with a be-tangled mustachio and an LED-encrusted cap under his arm, call him a bastard from me.
ash ♥
¹ Google Glass: opportunity ahoy! Give the Droids Glass! It’s the HUMANE thing to do.
² You may not have time to dally about with external links today, so please allow me to summarize. 10 years ago we humans turned our backs on droid “Pioneer 10” when it was 12 BILLION kilometers from Earth. The last thing we heard from it was “Oh for the love of God I’m so cold” – bink it’s gone. Well, we TELL ourselves it’s gone, but it’s not. It’s still out there, travelling at MACH76x10³²… all alone. Dead to us. But forever sentient and aware of its very lonely and immortal future…
³ It is 14,469.6 kilometres Perth to London as the crow flies. But that’s not even true. Any actual crow that tried to flap that distance (over open and very hostile water) would end up in a Narwhal’s nasty. They’re just not built to fly that far; it’s such a stupid phrase.