THE OTHER

Think some of the unthinkables. When you're young there are so many.

Santa a fraud...Mom & Dad having sex...prominent clergy sinning....prominent politicians sexting...Officer Friendly pushing dope...sports heroes cheating...Uncle Joe a fall-down drunk. As we grow older the unthinkables grow larger. Think your Army spending $32 billion since 1995 on advanced weapons that were canceled before they were even built...think Bernie Madoff...for goodness sakes, think Sarah Palin!

If growing older means still more unbelievable unthinkables ahead, at least think of the solace of Lincoln: "The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."

Still...

Isn't every day of every life clouded by one enduring impenetrable -- our inherent incapacity to think and feel and comprehend like the other person. We try. We say we do. We think we have. And yet, we can never get inside their skin. Not really. From concentration camps to therapy sessions, X can never become Y. Every human life is an unrepeatable act, a mystery only one can live out.

To those who prize privacy and celebrate freedom, take comfort here. Sometimes, though, the comfort is a cold one. For in the final measure this means it's impossible for anyone outside you to feel your pain, to fathom your soul, to fundamentally grasp why you are who you are. And why they are who they are.

Humanity is what it has always been. A collective journey across time by entirely unconnected travelers. There are times when some special someone appears and for a time makes us one. Prophets. Kings. Generals. Presidents. But throughout our history, these times are very brief.

Maybe this why the cliche: "All the world loves a lover." As we continually discover how impossible it is to truly know another, this is why we continually yearn for the next best thing. Love. That glorious sense that we have at last found our other half.

Which is surely why there are so very few novels or poems or movies or [God forgive me!] reality shows which do not end with that closeup kiss. That swallowing of lips by which we come as close as we can to at last become the other...