Perhelion

There are planets that spend their whole existence falling toward something they’ll never touch.

Not because they’re moving the wrong way.

The falling is what keeps them there.

I think that’s the strange thing about the universe. So much of it seems to exist in the space between almost and never. Things drawn together by forces no one can see, moving along paths they never chose, getting close enough to feel like something might change, then continuing on as they always have.

Maybe that’s not a sad thing.

Maybe we only call it that because we’re standing on one small piece of rock, watching everything from such a short distance.

The stars don’t seem bothered by it.

They don’t know about the things they pass. They don’t stop to wonder why another light is moving away, or why one keeps returning to the same place.

They just keep going.

I suppose there is something peaceful about that.

Or maybe that’s just what we tell ourselves when we look up at something too big to understand.