Nice essay on the difference between solitude and loneliness. As someone who craves the former and is terrified of the later, I know something about the line between the two and when it starts to blur. I have found it easy to get the solitude I need in the company of a likeminded person who is pursuing their interests that may or may not intersect with mine. For me the company is physical proximity to this person in a quiet environment.
I have spent many happy hours and days in this mode. There could be occasional conversations but mostly we are each doing our thing. Just removing that companion in solitude can turn it into a lonely experience and I have been through plenty of that as well. For me the presence of the companion is like air and water required to sustain solitude in a healthy way. Once the sustenance is removed, the inner resources I would use to enjoy the solitude get engaged in fighting loneliness. That makes for an incomparably worse situation. The only way I know to improve that is by staying so busy that it is impossible to experience the quiet alone time.
While solitude might sometimes be necessary for creativity, loneliness can often be the dark and fertile ground to depression. Samuel Johnson, the literary giant and depressive, found much to fear in the quiet absence of loneliness. His best advice for those of a similarly melancholy disposition was, “If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.”
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