(Howell Creek Radio address for Jan 30th, 2010 ) A Hand Up On Deck =================== One day last fall, I was looking over some photos of Trixie & me in Chicago, from a November afternoon a few years ago; & it occurred to me that only now can I really begin to see the distance that may exist between the souls of two people -- by default! -- even people who have a lot in common. Trixie and I were mere nice-to-meet-you’s then, and so as regards each other were no closer or further apart than any other of dozens of humans one sees in a given day; but it is since our spirits have become close that I have really gotten an idea of how far apart we were when we started, how far apart everyone is when they start. Two people can be sitting next to each other on the same concrete planter, having just missed the same train and laughing at the same joke, and still in their hearts be only like ships passing in the night, hardly recognizing each other. As for real strangers of the complete kind, they must be light years apart from us in what I may call ‘spirit distance’ -- their bodily presence a mere signal from another hemisphere that a soul exists there. The immense gaps that exist between the members of our race are very nearly beyond closing, & we have gotten quite used to them -- used to signaling at people from afar with candles & little customary flags, and yet keeping a whole ocean to ourselves in which to circle. You do not really see it, cannot really see it, until you have begun to be really close to someone. Not merely to close the distance between their ship and yours. There are other vessels constantly moving about in constellations about yours, some a bit closer than others; all quite very far away; but after sailing only just within view for months, to gradually realize this one in particular is getting closer; suddenly to pull right up alongside each other; to row precariously over and be given a hand up on deck; to be invited below to the kitchen table, to supper, a game of cards a good book. Then you look back to the beginning, to the oceanic gap that sat between you then; and the thoughtful among us don't take much longer to see that that is how everyone starts with each other. We generally are not sailing in the same formation; we generally are not merely adjacent & then happen to become tight-knit by an accidental fusion; -– generally, we are all at polar ends of the galaxy from one another, and gradually come to have tea by the same fire, and to really sit together on the same couch. Synopsis: ----------- Radio address for January 30, 2010, in which...we resume! How far apart we are when we start; how good it really is to come on board.