What's this with leaving? With departures? Why does it leave such an empty feeling?

Gerry, a colleague from Australia, came to Huainan to teach last September and he's leaving today...leaving, perhaps, never to return or at least not while I am still here...We were not the best of friends but still I feel kinda sad! See, Gerry is something of a priest and I something of a philistine. His interests and views and mine are pretty polar, yet we've had some interesting discussions, jogged around the sporting track many mornings, eaten lunch together. He would eat while I would still be sipping my beer, baijiu (white wine) or whatever hooch I could lay my hands on...and often, he would leave little for me...but, that didn't matter. I could always order more. Food is quite cheap here and a simple meal can be had for as little as 5/6 yuan (less than a dollar, including a nice chilled beer)!

Leaving! So, he will leave today...for a while we will keep in touch and write emails...and then slowly, the emails will begin to trickle down. He might miss answering one of mine and I will wait till he does or vice-versa. Then, one day, suddenly he might miss this place and his friends here and open his mailbox and shoot off a couple of emails...followed by another wait/watch/reply...until slowly, Huainan becomes a part of the past...dissolving slowly into the mist and haze...and he will become a distant memory, too!

It happens every time I leave home, my wife and two sons. I shed copiuous tears shamelessly on the airplane, insecure in the knowledge that I will see them after many months and unsure how they will be while I am away. Can you imagine a middle-aged man crying in a public place? People look curiously...but, then, who cares! The tears don't stop on my arrival here, continuing as they do for a time. And, then, when I have been away a week, ten days, two weeks, a month...the tears dry up...until I return home only to leave again. And, the floodgates open wide all over again.

All of us here today, so lost in our little worlds, cares, interests, duties, lives will be gone some day and others will come...others who will think as little about us as we do about those that were here before us....what is this with the coming and going? What kind of game is this and to what purpose?

Sometimes, I wonder if we are really 'people'...or mere events!