Rebirth: It Truly is Lonely out in Space
10 Aug 2022Astraeius
They'd always been just words to me, beautiful words from a beautiful song, written by a man that had never even dreamt of actually traveling through space. The world was larger back then, I thought, and just reaching orbit seemed like a great adventure. Nowadays, climbing on a ship has to be as easy as it was to board a plane back then. Or even board an actual ship. One that goes on water. Nowadays, one can grow used to having relatives in another star system, and still see them every other day. Nowadays, the world feels like its grown much, much, smaller. At least it did, to me.But maybe I'd just forgotten that yes, back then a man could easily board a cruise ship and laze off to another continent, uncaring or blissfully unaware of the dangers and mysteries that the sea held. Of the uninhabited islands that he would pass by but not stop into, or of the unseen creatures that swam beneath his hull. But I'm on no cruise ship, not anymore. I'm on a sailboat and I myself don't even know where the wind is carrying me. I'd thought the world smaller, but I was like that lazing sailor, simply unaware of how large the world still is.
There's a beauty in that. It does not matter how much we develop, how many worlds we discover, how fast we can travel. The world will never truly get smaller. We will just have to know where to look. Or, maybe, have to remember never to stop looking. And yet, some nights, I still do wish it were indeed smaller. Because I love getting lost amidst the stars, but it truly is lonely out in space.