{"id":4857,"date":"2020-04-22T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/?p=4857"},"modified":"2020-04-21T10:07:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T14:07:30","slug":"in-a-time-of-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/in-a-time-of-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"In a Time of Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe title=\"In a Time of Distance 4\/22\/20\" height=\"122\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none;\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/ixt59-d9e493?from=yiiadmin&amp;download=1&amp;version=1&amp;skin=1&amp;btn-skin=107&amp;auto=0&amp;share=1&amp;fonts=Helvetica&amp;download=1&amp;rtl=0&amp;pbad=1\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In a Time of Distance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The unexpected always happens in the way<\/em><br><em>The unexpected has always occurred:<\/em><br><em>While we are doing something else,<\/em><br><em>While we are thinking of altogether<\/em><br><em>Different things \u2013 matters that events<\/em><br><em>Then show to be every bit as unimportant<\/em><br><em>As our human concerns so often are;<\/em><br><em>And then, with the unexpected upon us,<\/em><br><em>We look at one another with a sort of surprise;<\/em><br><em>How could things possibly turn out this way<\/em><br><em>When we are so competent, so pleased<\/em><br><em>With the elaborate systems we\u2019ve created \u2013<\/em><br><em>Networks and satellites, intelligent machines,<\/em><br><em>Pills for every eventuality \u2013 except this one?<\/em><br><em>And so we turn again to face one another<\/em><br><em>And discover those things<\/em><br><em>We had almost forgotten,<\/em><br><em>But that, mercifully, are still there:<\/em><br><em>Love and friendship, not just for those<\/em><br><em>To whom we are closest, but also for those<\/em><br><em>Whom we do not know and of whom<\/em><br><em>Perhaps we have in the past been frightened;<\/em><br><em>The words&nbsp;brother&nbsp;and&nbsp;sister, powerful still,<\/em><br><em>Are brought out, dusted down,<\/em><br><em>Found to be still capable of expressing<\/em><br><em>What we feel for others, that precise concern;<\/em><br><em>Joined together in adversity<\/em><br><em>We discover things we had put aside:<\/em><br><em>Old board games with obscure rules,<\/em><br><em>Books we had been meaning to read,<\/em><br><em>Letters we had intended to write,<\/em><br><em>Things we had thought we might say<\/em><br><em>But for which we never found the time;<\/em><br><em>And from these discoveries of self, of time,<\/em><br><em>There comes a new realization<\/em><br><em>That we have been in too much of hurry,<\/em><br><em>That we have misused our fragile world,<\/em><br><em>That we have forgotten the claims of others<\/em><br><em>Who have been left behind;<\/em><br><em>We find that out in our seclusion,<\/em><br><em>In our silence; we commit ourselves afresh,<\/em><br><em>We look for a few bars of song<\/em><br><em>That we used to sing together,<\/em><br><em>A long time ago; we give what we can,<\/em><br><em>We wait, knowing that when this is over<\/em><br><em>A lot of us \u2013 not all perhaps \u2013 but most,<\/em><br><em>Will be slightly different people,<\/em><br><em>And our world, though diminished,<\/em><br><em>Will be much bigger, its beauty revealed afresh.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By Alexander McCall Smith, a Scottish writer&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>During this pandemic we are LEARNING so much about ourselves and others. During this time of isolation, we are DOING things we have not done in years.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What are you LEARNING?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;What are you DOING that you have not done in years?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a Time of Distance The unexpected always happens in the wayThe unexpected has always occurred:While we are doing something else,While we are thinking of altogetherDifferent things \u2013 matters that eventsThen show to be every bit as unimportantAs our human concerns so often are;And then, with the unexpected upon us,We look at one another with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window-150x137.png",150,137,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"ocean-thumb-m":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"ocean-thumb-ml":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"ocean-thumb-l":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window.png",206,137,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window-140x100.png",140,100,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Looking-out-the-Window-45x45.png",45,45,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Medard Laz","author_link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/author\/medlaz\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/category\/daily-treats\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Daily Treats<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"In a Time of Distance The unexpected always happens in the wayThe unexpected has always occurred:While we are doing something else,While we are thinking of altogetherDifferent things \u2013 matters that eventsThen show to be every bit as unimportantAs our human concerns so often are;And then, with the unexpected upon us,We look at one another with&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}