Embrace

Look at these lines and curves, these letters and words, these black absences of light against a background of white. They suggest sounds, and the sounds suggest a meaning, and the meaning refers to an action: embracing. And when you think of this action, it brings memories to mind; associations with hugs you have received before. If you allow these associations to fill your mind, you will recall the feeling of being hugged. Think about it long enough, and your skin will remember, and your blood will remember, and the very core of you will remember what it is to be enfolded.

I cannot now embrace you. I cannot hug you, I cannot hold you. I am too far away. I cannot comfort you, although your sadness is real to me, here. The transmission of your sadness suffers from no noise. All I can send to you is light, mere light,. That light suggests sounds, which suggest an action, that might evoke a memory, that might make you feel loved. Through all this abstraction, all these removes, it is all I can do.

It is all I can do, and it is what I must do.