Do your work for six years; but in the seventh, go into solitude or among strangers, so that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become.
Tag: solitude
Introspection means talking to yourself, and one of the best ways of talking to yourself is by talking to another person. One other person you can trust, one other person to whom you can unfold your soul. One other person you feel safe enough with to allow you to acknowledge things—to acknowledge things to yourself—that you otherwise can’t. Doubts you aren’t supposed to have, questions you aren’t supposed to ask.
The American Scholar: Solitude and Leadership – William Deresiewicz. First sentence.
Black Swan And Bathrooms – Mirror: Motion Picture Commentary
Interesting essay on self and Black Swan. (via)
Solitude welcomes a self or selves that does not, cannot, appear when in the company of others. Private selves refuse to manifest in public because other personas are at the front lines. Like mother Elephants circling their calves, our public selves form ranks. Each is a layer of armor, tweaking our interactions in the unconscious name of self defense.
Black Swan And Bathrooms – Mirror: Motion Picture Commentary
Black Swan And Bathrooms – Mirror: Motion Picture Commentary
Interesting essay on self and Black Swan. (via)
Solitude welcomes a self or selves that does not, cannot, appear when in the company of others. Private selves refuse to manifest in public because other personas are at the front lines. Like mother Elephants circling their calves, our public selves form ranks. Each is a layer of armor, tweaking our interactions in the unconscious name of self defense.
Black Swan And Bathrooms – Mirror: Motion Picture Commentary
Jodie Foster goes to college :: rogerebert.com
I don’t see myself getting married much before I’m 26. I won’t have the time, and, besides, I’m not mature enough to be nice to anyone else. I like being alone, without anyone to bother me. What if I got married to someone who wouldn’t let me lock myself in my room for six days and read?
Table for One
Photos of people eating solo. Interesting that when you post things without explanation, the reactions can be unpredictable.
“Night Walks” by Charles Dickens
For a while there, Charles Dickens was suffering from insomnia, so he took up walking “houseless” around London until the sun came up. A great portrait of a city and state of mind:
The restlessness of a great city, and the way in which it tumbles and tosses before it can get to sleep, formed one of the first entertainments offered to the contemplation of us houseless people. It lasted about two hours. We lost a great deal of companionship when the late public-houses turned their lamps out, and when the potmen thrust the last brawling drunkards into the street; but stray vehicles and stray people were left us, after that. If we were very lucky, a policeman’s rattle sprang and a fray turned up; but, in general, surprisingly little of this diversion was provided. […]
At length these flickering sparks would die away, worn out–the last veritable sparks of waking life trailed from some late pieman or hot-potato man–and London would sink to rest. And then the yearning of the houseless mind would be for any sign of company, any lighted place, any movement, anything suggestive of any one being up–nay, even so much as awake, for the houseless eye looked out for lights in windows.
Mark Larson 