Solitude

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Solitude has been posed as a solution to oh-so-much insanity in our lives.  After all, Sartre in his play No Exit concluded that "Hell is other people."  In his play, a poor guy dies to find himself in a beautifully appointed room with everything you could want and he shares it with two gorgeous women!  He at first thinks that he has obviously gone to Heaven and at first it seemed so.  They make love and enjoy one another's company enormously.

Then, he finds he can't actually leave the room and neither can they.  Worse, he finds that he can't even close his eyes, let alone sleep.  Now the terror starts, when he realizes that this is his situation for eternity, never to be alone again, never to have solitude.

So, what is it that makes it so bad?  Well, solitude is when a person can settle and listen to their own inner voice.  Even the quiet of perfect meditation is an inner listening of sorts not possible in a truly shared environment.  For within is where the truth of reality that only you can know exists.

Without it, you go crazy.  Yet, if that is all that you experience, you run the same risk of insanity.  Ask the prisoners in solitary confinement unless they are monks or saints of highly trained inner focus.  There is a reason that it is one of the ultimate punishments for the criminals.

If behind Door #1 is solitude and behind Door #2 is continuous communal gathering, what do we do?  OK, I'll go for Door #3, the mix of solitude and gathering.  Unfortunately, it can be a door with rusty hinges during a dangerous pandemic!  Ask our runner in the today's comic.

Please check out my other blog mates' takes on the same topic brought to us by Ramana at their blogs: 

Comments

  1. Ramana RajgopaulNovember 27, 2020 at 4:43 AM

    Sartre's play sounds intriguing and I shall explore that. The two door analogy is apt. A blend of being alone with oneself and being in company with other human beings delivers the inner peace unless one becomes a hermit.

    ReplyDelete

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