<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">In a time of distance</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The unexpected always happens in the way</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The unexpected has always occurred:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">While we are doing something else,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">While we are thinking of altogether</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Different things – matters that events</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Then show to be every bit as unimportant</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">As our human concerns so often are;</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">And then, with the unexpected upon us,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We look at one another with a sort of surprise;</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">How could things possibly turn out this way</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">When we are so competent, so pleased</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">With the elaborate systems we’ve created –</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Networks and satellites, intelligent machines,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Pills for every eventuality – except this one?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">And so we turn again to face one another</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">And discover those things</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We had almost forgotten,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">But that, mercifully, are still there:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Love and friendship, not just for those</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">To whom we are closest, but also for those</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Whom we do not know and of whom</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Perhaps we have in the past been frightened;</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The words <i class="">brother</i> and <i class="">sister</i>, powerful still,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Are brought out, dusted down,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Found to be still capable of expressing</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">What we feel for others, that precise concern;</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Joined together in adversity</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We discover things we had put aside:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Old board games with obscure rules,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Books we had been meaning to read,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Letters we had intended to write,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Things we had thought we might say</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">But for which we never found the time;</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">And from these discoveries of self, of time,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">There comes a new realisation</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">That we have been in too much of hurry,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">That we have misused our fragile world,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">That we have forgotten the claims of others</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Who have been left behind;</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We find that out in our seclusion,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In our silence; we commit ourselves afresh,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We look for a few bars of song</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">That we used to sing together,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">A long time ago; we give what we can,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We wait, knowing that when this is over</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">A lot of us – not all perhaps – but most,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Will be slightly different people,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">And our world, though diminished,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Will be much bigger, its beauty revealed afresh.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Alexander McCall Smith</div></div></body></html>