"I should be able to live exactly as I chose, obedient to no necessities but those imposed by wind and night and cold, and to no man's laws but my own."
-- Richard Byrd
Maybe it is selfish to desire solitude.
Afterall a retreat into oneself necessarily means cutting off friends and family regardless of length of time.
And it is hard to justify at times, for it's not like all solitary beings are retreating to compose the next Walden.
But silence, especially in this increasingly interconnected world, is luxury.
"
What is clear is that most of us persist in equating aloneness with loneliness, and company with companionship, despite a lifetime of evidence to the contrary. "We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers," is how Henry David Thoreau put it after two years as the sole inhabitant of a house he had built in the Massachusetts woods. You're never more alone than when you're in a crowd. A cliche, perhaps, but most of us recognise the truth in it."
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here.
(Picture from here. What a great view!)
"We travel, then, in search of both self and anonymity -- and, of course, in finding the one we apprehend the other."
"But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn’t want or need, not all I did. And it seemed quite useful to take a clear, hard look at what really led to peace of mind or absorption (the closest I’ve come to understanding happiness). Not having a car gives me volumes not to think or worry about, and makes walks around the neighborhood a daily adventure. Lacking a cell phone and high-speed Internet, I have time to play ping-pong every evening, to write long letters to old friends and to go shopping for my sweetheart (or to track down old baubles for two kids who are now out in the world)."
"Having said that, most of my friends and I have an austereideology,maybe a recurrent longing for nature and a simple lifestyle.Not exactly hippie-ism, but being aware of the advantages of limitations.
