Distances

Distance isn't always measured in yards. The distance keeping us appart from others, for instance, is measured in silences. Each time we don't say what we wanted to say, we step away from that person. Of course there's also the normal and common distance, because even in the most intimate relationships we don't say everything. There's always things we must, and want to keep to ourselves. Apart from this distance which is in fact our own boundaries, then we come to meet the other ones. The maintained silence, the unspoken words, the covered feelings; the unsaid things which keep us away from others, because every time we choose to shut up a word, keeping to ourselves what we wished to say, we choose to close the door and being isolated from the world around us. We choose to keep in our little cocoon, and thus we don't let ourselves to be noticed, to be known. That's what is called emotional distance. Thus, we can be close to someone even when we are miles away from them. We can be alone without feeling lonely. Meanwhile, we may have been living together with the same people for decades and feel completely isolated. Each of us centuries appart from the others. On the outside we are quite a common family like so many others. On the inside, however, we are lonely islands lost in a blind, deaf and mute ocean.