the basic properties of light

When we were kids we had a way to send somebody off, grandparents or an aunt and uncle who visited. You stood at the front door and flickered the porch light and they honked their horn and you kept the light going until they were out of sight, so they knew you would keep the lighthouse going. The point was for them to have no doubt that if they returned unannounced day or night you would still be standing there flickering the light like an idiot. It was a way of saying distance is an illusion, we are here together no matter what, we love you.

Another way we had in the summer was to run alongside the car until it got out of our development. This way they knew that we loved them so much that we were stubbornly clinging to their presence. Sure, you could do it alone, but it made more sense to do that in groups, my brothers, my sister and me, so we actually had a theoretical chance of catching the car, lifting it in the air and returning it to park back in front of the house. The point was for them to have no doubt that if they looked to the side of their car 20 or 30 miles down the road they might see you sprinting alongside, getting pretty good mileage out of only love and cheap pro Keds.

Using a paper-and-pencil test consisting of multiple-choice situational questions which also require reasoning for the choices made, common misconceptions in light were identified. It was found that most of the students understand the basic properties of light at a knowledge level but had difficulty applying these concepts in novel situations. (And fuck, doesn't growing up mean ending up twisted/distracted/scattered in a hundred directions, subjecting that theory of long-distance communion to the harshest conditions).

My grandfather, the last of those visiting loved ones still capable or willing to make the trip, might be an agnostic by this point but if you press him at an opportune moment he'll articulate a fine vision of heaven. The soul, he says, is wisp of light, and when we die we return to the source, to be together with those we love.