Far and Near.......

Didja' ever see something every day and not really give it much thought?  And then, maybe even years later, stop to examine it closely and discover to your astonishment that the object in question was not at all as you assumed it to be?

Maybe it was lovelier than you thought.....maybe the details of the object, when viewed up close, were incredibly and unexpectedly---even breathtakingly---beautiful or ugly.

Maybe it was another person you had taken for granted for years,  that now you have gotten to know him on a personal level, and found that this person is not as you imagined as you viewed her casually from afar.  Up close, maybe she became alive and unexpectedly vibrant.  Or maybe he disappointed, and was much less than you expected.

Have you ever looked at a part of your own personality---I mean really examined it up close---and found that it is something that, unexpectedly, needs improvement?

Such is the theme of a great short story by Thomas Wolfe, one of America's greatest writers. The name of the story is "Far and Near".     It is included in a collection of his short stories entitled "From Death to Morning".

He is a writer that will make you think deeply about his themes.  I like that very much.