Loneliness

There is a certain element of truth to the idea that there is only so much loneliness a man can take. When placed in solitary confinement for too long, a man can literally lose his mind. It is because the mind is a social thing, and a society cannot function in the mind of one man. There must be some greater form of society unknown to man. Something invisible to the eyes of man.

Yet this is not our topic of discussion. Rather, I would like to bring up a point.

There is only so much loneliness a man can take because there is a such thing as a collective soul.

That is not to say that there is one great soul that we all take part in; no “oversoul” such as is implied by Vedantic Hinduism, or even Ralph Waldo Emerson (although Emerson does make some good points.) There is an individual and individually created soul in each individual person. It is what grants them said personhood. However, there is, to a certain extent, a form of unity between the souls of humanity.

We, as humans, are called to be social beings. Yet this aspect of humanity, unique to humanity, is often misinterpreted. Being social and being extroverted are not equivalent. Rather, being social is more similar to being considerate.

I discovered a better understanding of the nature of society, ironically, through loneliness. I have often found myself missing one or many person(s) of great importance to me. And it is in these times that I have realized that I miss having some one to talk to, but that I miss having some one talk to me even more. And therein lies the nature of society.

The nature of society is to communicate and interact and to be communicated to and interacted with. We are all integral members of a molecular community, each person a critical atom in a molecular chain that is both adaptable and fragile; adaptable in that when a member is lost or removed, the community continues to function, yet fragile in that the community is still easily upset by said loss or removal. Due to this, we not only have a calling to cultivate our own lives by engaging in community, but we are called to cultivate the community by participating in the social lives of its unique and numerous individual persons. Consequently, the nature of loneliness is dual, to be engaged and to engage.

There is a certain element of truth to the idea that there is only so much loneliness a man can take.

Yet it is also true that man is never truly alone.

Let us thank our Creator for our social souls and for the collective community of souls he has provided for us to care for all souls. 

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” -Genesis 2:18