Interpreter of Maladies
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Solitude-meanings and implicationsI discussed this yesterday and since this whole topic is so thought provoking, I thought of blogging it. Solitude, is it a matter of choice or are people actually born with it. My best friend is a real loner. Given a choice, he will never talk to a human being. He infact hates most of the people on the face of the earth. On the other hand, I know of people who just can't visualize life without a "gang"or "group". Is it a weakness to be too social ? Do you actually become dependent on other people for fun and happiness? A context to this, is something that I thought of yesterday but couldn't put in perspective. If being social and extrovert is a weakness then love should be an even higher form of weakness. Because, in the depths of love, your happiness and pains become dependent on a sole entity. Isn't that weakness too? I agree, love makes you dependent but love also enriches your soul, teaches you to rise over and above individual fancies and look at a larger goal. Similary, when you have friends around you, you also learn to live with the shortcomings in personalities and look over and above that, at the larger picture, the positives in a person. Not that being a loner is a bad idea but solitude promotes selfishness. When you are the master of your life and there is no involvement of any other factor in your life matrix, then you are bound to swing things your way. You apparently become selfish.
The other side of the story is solitude also promotes creativity. Big writers, achievers and successful men have come so far owing primarily to the fact that they looked far ahead of the average life. In a group, more or less, you become one amongst the herd, an average person but uniqueness and therefore greatness, comes only through a silent, solitary and lone effort. These are my thoughts, what does everyone else say about this?
