Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn't have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn't have to be a walk during which you'll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain has managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don't find meaning but 'steal' some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn't make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be.
Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959
Wise words and I do so agree with them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Pat. Wise words, indeed.
ReplyDeleteAll my life, even as a child, I've needed solitude to think and to feel whole. Sometimes, I feel most connected to others when I'm alone. Pulling away from busyness and negativity is essential to my well-being. Camus' words ring true for me. Are you hiking much this summer, George, or is it too hot? The mountains of CO stay cool, thank goodness, and I try to be outside in Nature every day. We're heading to CA to the beach soon, and I might melt there in the heat!
ReplyDeleteWe must be cut from the same cloth, Barb. I, too, feel most connected to others when I'm alone. Ironic, isn't it? As for the hiking, the weather has been oppressively hot here. I still manage to walk at least five miles per day, and I try to take a more serious hike whenever the temps drop a bit. A couple of weeks ago, my grandson and I hiked to the top of of Table Rock Mountain, which is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about an hour from my house. A great day! Have a great trip to CA; my wife returning from CA tomorrow ( our daughter lives in L.A.).
Delete"And you need to be." I think I am never truly my essential self when I am with others. I've always had a huge appreciation for Camus. He let me know that someone else thought similarly when I was young and felt myself to be weird.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this George.
Thanks, Rubye. Personally, I don't think anyone is truly his or her essential self when in the company of others. And I feel the same way about Camus. When I first read something by him in college, I felt both a connection and a kind of liberation.
DeleteBeautiful image, beautiful quote.
ReplyDeleteI've always been a loner... it's good to see I'm not alone, in my aloness.
Thanks, Laura. I can assure you that you are not alone in your aloneness. The great theologian Paul Tillich once praised our language for having the wisdom to distinguish between two different types of aloneness. "Loneliness," he said, reflects the pain of being alone, whereas "solitude" reflects the glory of being alone. As for being a loner — which, like you, I am — I suppose the ideal situation is to find a good balance between solitude and community. That said, I definitely tilt toward the solitude side of the equation. I'm never bored when alone, but I'm often bored with large groups of people. I think it's a matter of loving the gifts of solitude — the ability to stay mindful of nature, the time to think and live creatively, the absence of social pressure to be something one is not, the better perspectives that one always has at a distance.
DeleteYes George, I too agree with Albert Camus
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gwen.
ReplyDelete