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8. Special relativity

Soleia 0.76

 "By a process of contradiction, distance in space makes things look small, and therefore free from defect. This is why a landscape looks so much better in a contracting mirror or in a camera obscura, than it is in reality. The same effect is produced by distance in time. The scenes and events of long ago, and the persons who took part in them, wear a charming aspect to the eye of memory, which sees only the outlines and takes no note of disagreeable details. The present enjoys no such advantage, and so it always seems defective.

 And again, as regards space, small objects close to us look big, and if they are very close, we may be able to see nothing else, but when we go a little way off, they become minute and invisible. It is the same again as regards time. The little incidents and accidents of every day fill us with emotion, anxiety, annoyance, passion, as long as they are close to us, when they appear so big, so important, so serious; but as soon as they are borne down the restless stream of time, they lose what significance they had; we think no more of them and soon forget them altogether. They were big only because they were near."
-- Arthur Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism

There was a time my love when you cried at the top of your lungs when you farted. I laughed and tried to comfort you.  Your beautiful little face would scrunch up in displeasure, turning beet red beneath the golden hue of your complexion.  It's okay, I'd try to tell you -- try to comfort you, sing to you in the melody of "Be our guest" from Beauty and the Beast.

You'd react so strongly to even the smallest discomfort.  Disproportionate-- almost as if you are trying to get attention. And then I'd have to remind myself that what seems small to me, would have to be enormous to you given your size. That the discomfort of gas passing through your bum would be one of the top 5 worst things that you can imagine.  My top 5 worst things that I can imagine would include things like losing you or losing your mother or breaking a bone. I'd rightly get upset about something of that magnitude.  So how wrong is it for you to take a fart so seriously?  The bigness and smallness of our problems are relative to how big and small we are and how big or small we choose to be.  Remember this, my love.

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