I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone; let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows.
H.D. Thoreau
H.D. Thoreau
It seemed that all too often, when finding himself in a small local but still raucous tavern, which most conversation with women eventually elevated to words that embodied the idea of “can’t we just go live on a mountain, in a cabin, and be away from all this,” that moments of clarity swept in like ocean waves. As much as we are drawn to society’s fire early, eventually it fades and we are left wondering why others cannot sustain us.
So it would seem that this understanding would comfort him as he lay early on a Saturday evening, in his tent alone, far away from those he knew, and had hoped to know better. Reasoned thinking holds one steady, but will not soothe. So as his mind raced over the landscape, he thought of clinking glasses, juke box repeats, and bluejeaned knees rubbing under the bar stools. Soon his emotions assumed control, he felt alone.
djs
