Its all a matter of scale

 To many people the past is much the same as the present, nothing much has changed and life goes on much as before. Most of us follow a path set out by providence be it fate, destiny prudence or foresight we arrive at where we are by largely following the herd. This is true whether it be the young chap now grown old who set off in his fathers footsteps to gain an education and join "the firm" or the person who bobbed about from job to job, satisfied to be amongst the images of his youth, the places he knew then and which have changed little and therefore are a source of support as he grows old.

It's strange how this map of our lives, the 1"x 1 mile, close proximity, he never moved far, knows each bump and wrinkle and has a common denominator which describes most of our lives. 

A few used a different scale and wandered off over the horizon to lose themselves in foreign countries. Here everything was different nothing familiar it was  a learning process as one coped to understand the new local norms.
For them the convenience of familiarity, the strong bonds one builds between friends which provide great strength as people move through our lives is missing. The knowledge of the culture and the part you play in it, which makes for another form of familiarity and carries the population along a similar path by which you recognise each other, is also missing.
Some people in a later stretch in ones life swap the large scale for the small on the assumption that the old and familiar are still there and one can re-plug as if you had never been away.
It's an illusion since nothing stands still, including ourselves and the close personal space is lost to intervening experience.
Of course we are all simply "the cast" of a moving drama called life. Once the star of the show slowly we take on diminutive rolls just to remain noticed and then, as the curtain descends for the last time, someone deletes us completely !!

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