Imitation

It’s a Small World After All


There seems no question but that the majestic size of the Earth is on “the way out.” Since the aeroplane, trains, boats, were invented, traveling has become so much easier. But is the easy way always the best?

Because it’s now so easy to get around the world, the Earth has “shrunk in size.” Many people, when they fly across the country, don’t think twice about it. Their perspective of the travel was that it lasted a couple hours, much quicker than if you took a car. But since they spent less time moving- their idea is that the land is a lot smaller than it actually is. And yet there will be a loss in the reality of size of the world, and few people seem to be worrying about it. If everyone thinks that the world is sixteen hours big, how will people react to the prospect of navigation?

Four hundred years ago, it took someone three months to cross the Pacific Ocean alone. Now it doesn’t take more than a day. A day. A day compared to one hundred eighty days. Of course people are going to think the world is bigger if it takes them more time to cross it. But really, the Earth is the same size it is now then it was when Christopher Columbus went around it.

But people today don’t think of the world the way the used to, & there will never be an adequate substitution. Travel used to be scary, dangerous, yet, a privilege. Now? Now what? People travel ever day, aeroplane, boat, train, blimp. How can we have any idea of how big the world really is if we always rush through things? We save a day, maybe a couple if we take a plane instead of a bus, but, so what? We’ve got nothing but time. Why not actually discover the way things are?