Sitting outside tonight after the storm, I saw through the mass of clouds a single star was able to poke out. I looked around in the sky for others, but this was the only one.


I realized how alone this star is. It was no more alone on this night than any other, just because one creature on one planet had a cold front in the way. But I realized that stars are like people in some ways.


One looks up at a sky crowded with billions of stars, and it would appear that they are close enough to touch each other , to have more than an indirect effect on each other. Perhaps even to commune on some celestial level with a life of their own that we cannot comprehend.

In truth, though it looks like they have each other, they are all utterly alone, surronded by almost incalculable measures of miles of dark matter.

The same with each one of us; it would seem, at a glance, that the world is so full, so crowded that everyone would have someone, that you need nearly reach out to touch your neighbor, or to feel his warmth. Instead, we are close enough to see warmth, and know that we don't feel it. We are each surrounded with our own dark thoughts, dreams, and heartaches, the void seeming to stretch out for more than we can fathom. It would seem that someone could reach us, could touch us, but everyone is too far away.

We, as a society, are too far away from each other. Like scattered celestial bodies lost in a sea of blackness, we are all so much more alone than it appears.