Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

Essentially, perspective is a form of abstraction. It simplifies the relationship between eye, brain and object. It is an ideal view, imagined as being seen by a one-eyed, motionless person who is clearly detached from what he sees. It makes a God of the spectator, who becomes the person on whom the whole world converges, the Unmoved Onlooker.

Semakin bersedia seseorang untuk menilai sesuatu dari sudut pandang orang lain yang berbeda, maka semakin beragamlah perspektifnya terhadap sesuatu tersebut.
Semakin beragam perspektifnya terhadap sesuatu tersebut, maka semakin dekatlah persepsinya dengan kebenaran utuh dan apa adanya akan sesuatu tersebut.
Inilah proses pembentukan sikap objektif dalam diri manusia.

She seemed always to have seen him through a blur - first of sleepiness, then of distance and indifference - and now the fog had thickened till he was almost indistinguishable.

I tried to put things in perspective but sometimes you're just too close to it.

Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.