#100. Distance

In today’s world, distance as a notion is left to be just that, a notion. We have overcome every obstacle that distance presents us with. Borders have truly been shrunk, be it in terms of travel, or communications. It is hard to fathom that there was a time we had to walk for hours on end just to cover small distances, when seeing the modern reality of hundreds of horse powered cars are at the mercy of our tapping a few times on a 6-inch screen.

Today, we evaluate this very notion of distance, and how it impacts our lives, our thoughts, and our relationships with the ones close to us.

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.

– Steven Wright

A lot of efforts made by the modern man have been to bring things closer to where he is. The entire logistics industry is driven by this very problem. How can we ensure we can bring things as close to us as possible? Be it food, transportation or any other necessity for ourselves, the entire ecosystem is convenience driven, wherein the commodity reaches the consumer, rather than the other way around.

We always want our loved ones to be in the closest proximity to us as possible. I have myself had the trouble of facing anxiety when I do not know what people are thinking, and if their behaviour is a true reflection of what they truly believe in the context of my relationship with them. The solution, be as close to my people as possible. My wife would happily tell you about my badgering line of questioning when I feel there is something going on.

From this perspective, it would appear distance is a negative factor. However, like everything else in the world, there are more than one perspectives to this subject as well.

Even in the world of logistics, the closest distance is not always the most optimal for efficiency purposes. After a point, the returns start to diminish, and that causes temporal and monetary impacts to the solution.

Even when we talk about the realm of interpersonal relationships, “Distance makes the heart grow fonder”, we have all thought or heard about this notion at some point in our lives. Experts claim that space is an integral component of any healthy relationship.

This perspective depicts that distance is a positive factor.

Which is it?? Why can’t philosophical concepts be easy to comprehend?

Well, the simple conclusion we can draw from this is there is such a thing as perfect distance from a subject. The subject could be a thought, a physical object or a person.

I have always believed there is something bigger than us, which has created us with an all-encompassing approach. Consequently, I found parallel between the human body and the human mind work, and it is pretty interesting.

The human body and the human mind work very similarly in terms of dynamics. Consider an example where we are driving on a highway. All throughout the drive, we see objects become closer and father to us. A man crossing the road at a distance will only appear clearly when we are in a distance where the human eye can resolve the image of the man clearly.

On the contrary, cars these days come with a feature called “blind spot indicator”, which flashes a light when a vehicle approaches the rear of our vehicle, and becomes close enough for it to become a literal blind spot for the human eye.

In my opinion, our own thought patterns and the proximity we have with them have a very similar relationship. The closer we are to a thought or a thought pattern, the lesser we can see it. Similarly, the farther we are from a thought pattern, the lesser we understand it.

Long story short.

It is essential to develop the perfect distance from a thought to be able to evaluate its validity, or in most cases, its invalidity.

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one. 🙂