Lingering Exile

Tuesday, Nov. 09, 2010-12:31 am
"These blessed candles of the night." ~William Shakespeare, (referring to stars), from Merchant of Venice.

Until Copernicus pointed it out, everyone believed that Earth was at the center of the universe.
For the entire tenure of humans on the planet, the night sky has been an inspiration .
In conceit, people actually think of the heavens as having been created for us.

I always loved looking up at the night sky, filled with planets and intricate constellations .


On any given night, you might see Venus or Mars with the naked eye.
The irony is that the more scientific knowledge we gained about the universe, the less we could see ,without a good telescope, due to the glow of city lights.
Alpha Centauri, the youngest and brightest star in the sky, is not a star at all, it is really a triple system, 2 suns tightly orbiting each other and a third circling them both. It appears as a single solitary point of light.
It is subtle in it's deceit . An untruth with insufficient cover. The illusion will go on, patiently performing it's intricate pattern for eons . It could afford to be patient.

I was happy that I only had to be patient for a few weeks.
On this night there was something else besides stellar bodies in the sky.
Jay was on a jet travelling to Europe.


We spoke on the phone briefly before he boarded the overnight flight. I was up late, as usual. From time to time I'd look at "Flyte Check" ,the real time online 2D image of the actual flight as it traversed the Atlantic. It was peaceful and comforting to occasionally see the progress of the plane as it traversed across the expanse of the ocean. My daughter joked that I was like a "stalker". I was not doing this out of obsession, or melancholy. I just liked checking on him from time to time.

At 2 a.m. He was half way to Paris, probably sleeping on the plane. If I didn't get to sleep soon, he would probably feel more rested at 5 am when he landed than I would.

He had stayed with me the night before.

My laptop was next to me on the side where he had been sleeping the previous night. If you are lucky, the desire for one person can be so strong that it transcends the imposition of "missing " them in a negative way. Does "absence make the heart grow fonder"?
Nothing can compare to those perfect moments when boundaries are erased and an ordinary night is turned into something beautiful. I would miss him, but it would be with peace and contentment. I'd have a little help from Flyte-check, Skype , and other modern wonders , with him on one side of the ocean ,in lingering exile, and me on the other.

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