Dear Reader,
Today I am going to see Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson!
It’s the best day.
I’ll share a photo later.
The first Dylan song I ever heard on radio when I was in high school was Hurricane. I was transfixed by the story, the voice, the mood. His music has companioned me through much of life’s ups and downs and it’s always a joy to come back to it. (Though, I’m not sure how often I leave.) No song is ever the same twice. I think that’s part of his real gift.
This week, as I desperately worked to finish a section of my loneliness book (while looking forward to seeing Dylan), I kept encountering the idea of solitudes. Friends sent me poems and songs about solitude, which I love. My book is not about solitude, but it is difficult if not impossible to completely divorce the ideas.
In that spirit…
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Fire-Signal
the sea had too little solitude for him
Andrei Tarkovsky, “Learn to love solitude”
I think I’d like to say only that they should learn to be alone and try to spend as much time as possible by themselves. I think one of the faults of young people today is that they try to come together around events that are noisy, almost aggressive at times. This desire to be together in order to not feel alone is an unfortunate symptom, in my opinion. Every person needs to learn from childhood how to spend time with oneself. That doesn’t mean he should be lonely, but that he shouldn’t grow bored with himself because people who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger, from a self-esteem point of view.
A page from Thomas Merton’s “Learn to be alone”
Until soon,
Sam
Solitude:
‘Well, I try my best to be just like I am
But everybody wants you to be just like them
They say, "Sing while you slave" and I just get bored
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.’
Rabbi Hellel ,”If I am not for myself,who is for me?And if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?”
The despair, during our times of mental health, visits all of us at some time.Yet at some time you need to decide,’enough’ if you can. While Hillel,at one point,insensitivity recommended a strong rope for suicide himself was at a crossroads of pastoral crisis?
Is joy possible? At times! Merton, an unfortunate electric shock ended his life, that was a spark that maybe said ‘you can do it, don’t stop.’ What is loneliness without life? Maybe off topic but maybe not?