"JUST A LINE TO SAY…"

What is this Donald McGill postcard-lady writing on her postcards home?

The postcard or the blog, the sentiments are the same: someone far away, for whom the job in hand is essentially one of relaxation and enjoyment, took time out to tell you that you were thought of and remembered…

The messages themselves are invariable trivial: something about sun, sea and sand, mention of local sites visited and customs noted - nothing monumental or life changing…

I doubt if anyone ever sent a postcard of the Clock Tower at Margate with a note on the back to the effect that contemplating the depth and limitlessness of the ocean had made them realise that their life is incredibly shallow and unbelievably narrow…

What would be the point? As with everything in our lives, there is nothing that one man can show or tell another that can truly convey his innermost emotions… We relate to others’ experiences and feelings only in terms of what we have experienced and felt ourselves - which, at best, may be similar but rarely identical…

I might tell you, for example, that last night I looked across at the towering blackness of Telendos island rising from the moon-dabbed sea and silhouetted against the star-studded sky and, in that fleeting moment, saw a shooting star race through the crowded thoroughfares of heavens in an arc of light and plunge suddenly into darkness…

But to try and tell you what I felt in that split second would be futile.

Sufficient to say, “Wish you were here…”