The Glass Between

We spend our lives looking through barriers. A pane of glass, a screen, the thin veil of a language we do not fully speak. We watch others as if they are actors in a play we arrived at late. We want to know what they are saying, what they are laughing at, why the world seems to hold them so gently. But the glass is cold. It keeps the sound out. It keeps the warmth on the other side. Perhaps it is better this way. To observe without touching is a form of respect. We do not need to possess the moment to be changed by it. We only need to acknowledge that it exists, separate from our own heavy thoughts, unfolding in a room we will never enter. What remains when the laughter stops and the window is closed?

Shikchit Khanal has captured this distance in the image titled Siblings in the Window. Does the glass bring us closer to their joy, or does it only remind us of what we are watching from afar?