Curious Questions and Answers

Loneliness and solitude are different beasts.

Solitude is invigorating time alone with my thoughts to keep me company. I enjoy my solitude. I seek my solitude.

Loneliness is a lack of connection in a room full of people with whom I share nothing but space. I don’t enjoy my loneliness. I struggle to escape from loneliness.

But therein lays the problem. You can’t run from loneliness, you can only risk connecting with people; or trying to connect with people who may not want to connect with you.

Friends and family.  Acquaintances, even. Maybe they’re the solutions to loneliness. As if loneliness were a problem to be solved.

I wonder whether disorders in which a person has multiple personalities is the mind’s attempt to overcome loneliness by surrounding oneself with others, other people with whom one has a close relationship?

It’s interesting to think about one person with different personalities. I suspect most of us have at least two; the one that lets the guard down almost completely and the public face that does its best to adhere to social norms.  I know  I have at least two. The one who writes this blog tends to behave like an extrovert to a much greater extent than the one who interacts with people face-to-face. Both of them are introverts, but the flesh-and-blood version behaves like an introvert, especially in the presence of strangers and other fearful creatures.

And so, now that I’ve answered all the questions of humankind that really matter, I’ll see about finding the answers to some that don’t.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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One Response to Curious Questions and Answers

  1. Millie says:

    Beautifully and thoughtfully written, my kindred spirit friend. I savored my solitude during a summer alone in London where I knew no one, yet I have felt lonely in the presence of beloved family and friends, especially on holidays that Hallmark cards and Folgers coffee ads tell me should be the happiest days of the year.

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