The Geometry of Distance

We walk through cities as if they were forests. We navigate the concrete, the intersections, the sudden intersections of strangers. There is a safety in the lines we draw around ourselves. A circle on the ground, a barrier of cloth, a gaze averted. We believe these things keep us whole. But the city is a machine of proximity. It forces us into the same air, the same light, the same fleeting moment of shared existence. We are never truly alone, yet we spend our lives perfecting the art of being elsewhere. The space between two people is not empty. It is filled with everything we choose not to say. It is a weight we carry, a quiet tension that holds the world together. If we stepped across the line, would the silence break? Or would we find that the distance was never there at all?

Erly Bahsan has captured this quiet tension in the image titled The Inner Circle. It reminds me that even in the middle of a crowd, we are all standing in our own private orbits. Do you recognize the space you keep between yourself and the rest of the world?