Existentialists, led by Jean Paul Sartre, believe that loneliness is the very essence of being human. Each human being, existentialists argue, comes into the world alone, travels through life as a separate person, and ultimately dies alone. Sartre believed in an epistemic loneliness in which loneliness is a fundamental part of the human condition because of the apparent paradox between the desire of man's consciousness to have meaning met with the isolation and nothingness of the universe.
I've often wondered whether the phenomenal success of Second Life is a reflection of our innate need to connect, the drive to abate the loneliness that is part of modern existence. Think about the bonds that we forge in SL with people that we have never met (and will probably never meet) face-to-face. So many of us spend countless hours online in order to connect with our SL friends. Isn't that evidence of our powerful need to avoid being alone, the biological imperative to fight back loneliness? And isn't the need to connect so powerful that sometimes we even neglect sleep or food just to be online? Think about it.
Coping with loneliness, accepting it, and learning how to direct our own lives with some degree of grace and satisfaction is the human condition. I cope with loneliness by writing and by connecting, through my words, with others.
How do you cope with loneliness?
ALONE
Dawn’s first light breaks through my bedroom window.
Bathing the room in a multitude of hues,
That chase away the night’s grey shadows.
With eyes still clouded by my long slumber,
I look around.
I am alone.
Outside, snow continues to fall blanketing our playground.
I turn to touch the pillow,
Where you once rested your head,
And we dreamed together.
The pillow feels cold,
I am alone.
I exhale a sigh and force my eyes to close.
In my head a movie reels off,
It is a Technicolor vision,
Where we run through fields of sweet summer jasmine.
When the movie ends,
I am alone.
Time marches,
In rhythm with the ticking of the clock.
And as the hours turn into days,
I search for you in all the places that we once shared,
But you are not there.
I am alone.
All the empty moments,
That need filling.
All the empty rooms,
That need your laughter.
The empty arms,
That long to hold you.
I am alone.
03.07.2009
Copyright © 2009 DB. All rights fully reserved.
2 comments:
Debbie, I am in love with your poetry and I think I am in love with the soul that can give expression to those emotions. Don't be alone and don't stop writing.
deb
you pertry is very nice ! this is a part of your talent you offer us ! but not only your talent but also your life part of it ! Life is strange ! in fact i think that when maybe the happiness is here under our eyes we don't see and appreciate it and after when something changes we regret i think we regret what we didn't do ! we don't always control our lives and sometimes we are like prisoners and we can feel the loneliness ! a long part of our life is made of loneliness but when we have the opportunity to open our heart to share our life i think we have to do it ! it is very hard the first time but it is so good so particular he he he that it really helps us. debbie you gave me this opportunity and i will thank you all my life for that ! thanks you very very much for all you give me and all you give us ! yes continue to write but open your heart, don't only try, but do it, you are not alone ! the harder is the first time and after it is easier ! kissseeeessssss bye bye
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