Solitude of Self
Just something I've been ruminating on. On relationships and meaning...
How far is it possible to really connect to another human being? We all seem to be seeking depths in others which are not possible to reach. I've been reading Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whom I suspect had great philosophical dimensions. Here is a wonderful piece of writing from the Solitude of Self:
"And yet, there is a solitude, which each and every one of us has always carried with him, more inaccessible than the ice-cold mountains, more profound than the midnight sea; the solitude of self. Our inner being, which we call ourself, no eye nor touch of man or angel has ever pierced.
It is more hidden than the caves of the gnome; the sacred adytum of the oracle; the hidden chamber of eleusinian mystery, for to it only omniscience is permitted to enter."
There is truth in Cady's description of the human core...and every human being is conscious of that solitude, even in the most perfect company. It is that truth which makes a falsehood of the belief that one can find completeness, be protected by or saved by, another person. There are no 'soulmates'...not really. We must each be our own pilot...there is no other.
~The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenum, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.~
Thomas Wolfe
Though it may make us islands of despair, there's something rather beautiful in our solitude ...if there is such a thing as the "sacred", perhaps this lonely human heart of ours would be it.