Mind you, not only long-eared Martians need space. Venusians too – I can tell you from my own substantiated experiments – have a need for space. All people need space as much as they need companionship. We’re as much social beings as we’re individualistic — the people and private specie. I find people I know tend to confuse space for loneliness. They think that if you are alone, if are without someone to share every minute of your life with, every grocery list and laundry load and ***** *****, you must be lonely. If you are not married, not in a relationship, then you are lonely. You should scramble for a shidduch or send out for a mail order bride or import a Martian, just don’t get lonely. Sometimes I have been extended much unwarranted sympathy by friends who have been betrothed for many years, the implication of their sympathy being “you must suffer such tormented nights if you don’t wake up every morning to an extra pair of dirty socks on the floor”. Which I do, but I hate pity. And besides, that’s not loneliness. Loneliness can exist even when we are in a crowd of thousands, in a family of a dozen, in a marriage of three. Loneliness is not about how few people are in your life, but how few people accept you, love you and are able to appreciate you for who you are.

But I digress. What is happening to invading space is all good romance; Curiosity landed on Mars last week, making it the most optimistic and exciting world event in the summer. We’re experiencing the making of history as humans continue to conquer and prize space.