Another town was about 45 minutes away. Then, they build a new straighter road. Between us and that town along that road, there are now no small villages with low speed limits. So, now that town is only 20 minutes away.
The world can change its distances, as measured in time to travel, depending on methods, routes, obstacles and laws. As we do it now, we need gasoline and maybe electricity to travel although for short distances, we may bike or walk. Every now and then, I see people skateboarding. I saw a college couple scooting along on skateboards the other day, holding hands.
I am still in love with the charm of getting a book to travel long distances almost instantaneously. If a book is available in Kindle form, it is about a minute away at all times, whether I have ever seen the book or not. If I hear about a book I would like to look at (Note: LOOK AT, not "read" - that might happen and it might not but I have to look at the book first to decide if I want to read it) and the book is in the local library, I ask if the library is open today. Do I have time to drive there now? Round trip, including time to find the book and check it out, is probably 30 minutes. But Kindle books are a minute away, often closer in time than being in the next room.
Besides getting to a place or to a book, breathing and eating and drinking are important. I am close to the air I breathe. In fact, our usual closeness to air to breathe is exactly why it is the recommended focus for meditation practice. It is so close, so accessible - just take a breath from our ocean of air. Eating? Some of us don't want to be too close to eating. Our metabolisms are dropping and our body weight is rising. So, not too close to food. I see many people that have developed closeness to their water bottles. Seems overdone in some cases. We could never be the biological successes we are if we couldn't go several hours without drinking water. Still, it is impressive how close to water sources people tend to keep themselves.
I am closer to friends than I used to be. I don't use Skype or Google Hangouts much but I do use email and Google chat some. People tend to be close by with electronics and phone calls.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
