My nephew, Nicholas, was deployed to Afghanistan two weeks ago for six months. The Marine officer is a career military guy, and his Facebook posts have been breezy from Afghanistan, describing uber workouts in the heat.

The other night, he posted on Facebook within seconds of my posting and I realized that we were on Facebook at the exact same time. It was comforting to know he was safe and to know we were sharing this Earth from very different places but we could look up into the same sky.

When my sister was 13, our family took a trip to the East and her boyfriend that summer told Janice to climb a tree in Syracuse one designated evening at the exact same time he would climb a tree in Spokane and they could look at the same moonlit night together. I don't know if it happened. Likely not. But it's a romantic idea, staring at the same heavens as your loved one.

Afghanistan. Spokane. The view connects us. Stay safe, Nicholas.

(Spokesman-Review archives photo)

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