soledad...

There was an interesting program on PBS last night. It was a series of animations and narratives about loneliness. Various people, writers, actors, etc., had written 5-minute monlogues about times in their lives when they have been lonesome, and what they learned from their experiences. The accompanying animations had a very distinctive style. Very much like sketches, with a little bit of color and jerky, exaggerated movements.

I guess maybe this ties in a little bit with my post from two days ago about the failings of verbal communication. We are all human, but everyone can identify with feeling lonely. In one of the clips, a guy said that nobody can know how you perceive the world around you, and based on that alone we are guaranteed to feel lonely.

In another one, a man was saying that he was very lonely and finally fell and broke his leg. He was very grateful, because that way he could think about taking care of his body and have a rest from taking care of his mind and soul. Poignant. Things are best with me and my dear sweetheart when we are facing challenges together. Problems within the relationship are inevitable, but I think they will be the hardest problems I ever face. Harder than anything else that may be coming from outside of our companionship. I know that even huge problems in our world will seem less daunting because I can count on her to be by my side. To buoy me up when I feel weighed down. This is priceless, and I hope that I will be able to depend on it for years to come.

I'm reading a book she bought for me called The Science of Good and Evil by Michael Shermer. It's good. I don't agree with all that he says, but it makes me think and pushes my comfort zone a little. Makes me consider new ideas and possiblities, and keeps me mentally stimulated. Anyway, he introduces the book talking about human societies, and how they started out small. How they were tribes, or small cities, and there was a very strong feeling of unity. A very strong social bond because there was a clear in-group and a clear out-group (another tribe usually). Anyway, the limits faced by these small tribes that kept them from expanding were caused by the big world they lived in. Communication and transportation were difficult, and social controls couldn't be exercised efficiently. We now live in a small world and these limits are far less significant. However, we are not united as humanity. This is because there is no collective threat to all of us equally. He says that this is the reason many philosophers have suggested that we would need an external threat (probably some sort of extraterrestrial invasion) in order to be united as humanity and erase divisions caused by race and religion.

Anyway, I'm so happy that I have someone to face my external threats with, and I guess this post is a sappy tribute to her. But seriously, I hope she stays.