"Brooklyn 9.6 light-years" (Lost in the Cosmos)

I've blogged a bit lately about Walker Percy and recently came across this passage from his book, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book, which I thought I would share: 

“Thought Experiment: You are a native of New York City, you live in New York, work in New York, travel about the city with no particular emotion except a mild boredom, unease, exasperation, and dislike especially for, say, Times Square and Brooklyn, and a longing for a Connecticut farmhouse. Later you become an astronaut and wander in space for years. You land on a strange, unexplored (you think) planet. There you find a road sign with an arrow, erected by a previous astronaut in the manner of GIs in World War II: 'Brooklyn 9.6 light-years.' Explain your emotion.”
― Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book