Fertile solitude is the basic unit of a full and contented
life. The line between solitude
and loneliness can be thin but there is a difference. Loneliness is difficult to confess;
difficult too to categorize. I have no such difficulty confessing solitude here
on Fair Isle.
What does it feel like to be lonely? It feels like
being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a
feast. Fertile solitude, however, is learning to enjoy your own company.More
than that, it is a developmental achievement, on the road to knowing thy self.
“All of humanity’s problems,” the French scientist and
philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654, “stem from man’s inability to sit
quietly in a room alone.” Or for that matter, on Britian’s most remote
inhabited island.
The best things in life happen
to you when you’re alone and despite the camaraderie and the spirit of
cooperation, for the most part we are alone on this island. That’s ok.
Everyone should experience at least one prolonged
period of solitude in life. For in true solitude, one’s inner voices become
audible and in consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives.
