you were completely alone in the world? Imagine being shipwrecked on a desert island for years. Could you cope or would you descend into madness? I have spent a considerable amount of time isolated in the past due to depression and find, without any connection with other human beings, you tend to lose perspective after a while. When I lived completely alone for a year, I often found myself talking to inanimate objects and rooms even, similar to Tom Hanks in ‘Cast Away’ when he starts talking to the football. What was its name, Wilson? Yes, I’ll admit it, I shed a few tears when he drifted off to sea. Spending time by yourself can be extremely relaxing and therapeutic but it seems vital to find a balance between alienation and socialising for a harmonious mind…
I too tend to talk to myself when I’m alone – and sometimes when I’m not alone, which can be embarrassing. Living alone can seem unreal, sometimes, almost like we need someone else around us to validate our existence. I guess I feel that a large part of what we’re doing here on earth is to learn how to get along with other people, so maybe that’s why most of us prefer to be in company.
Having said that, living alone can be a great opportunity to develop as people: to get our own ‘stuff’ sorted out without having to deal with other people’s as well. So we should all try to make the most of our time on the desert island. I’m very squeamish about killing things, though, so I hope there’s plenty of bananas.
Awww, for some reason I have Homer’s “We have no bananas” song stuck in my head now. Yep, me too though, as I don’t like coconuts but may quite possibly put hair and faces on ’em.
I’d survive, but I’d become more and more detached. I actually was isolated that way for a while when in a city where I knew no-one. People were then objects, there were the object-people in the shop who had specific code to be uttered to get the food I needed to eat, but not people people. And I sort of willingly lost it.