Eleanor Rigby
I’ll never get into your heart
I’m just happy to hang around
-Travis, “Happy To Hang Around”
The thing about feeling alone is that it’s so easy to think you’re the only one who feels like shit and that nobody else out there could possibly understand just how bad you feel.
And then, there’s a site like PostSecret, where people anonymously send in these beautiful, sad postcards with their deep and darkest secrets and it’s strange thinking that there all these people out there who feel just as lost and alone.
It always makes me think of that old Beatles’ song where Paul McCartney asked, “All the lonely people --- where do they all come from?”
When I was in university, I remember how it always used to surprise me that someone would remember my name. I always felt pretty invisible --- like nobody could really be bothered to truly see me. And of course, I was too shut off from the rest of the world to make the effort to be the one to reach out.
So, yeah, I know a thing or two about being lonely.
The thing is, someone recently said to me that it was hard to imagine me ever being lonely. Yeah, I’m close to my sisters and to my family --- I’m lucky in that way. I have sisters who are like friends and I always know that I can go to them about anything.
I’m lucky because I’ve known my best friend for 22 years and we’re still really close.
I actually have friends that I can count on in an emergency because I’ve had emergencies and I never found myself alone in those moments. I always had someone.
But I guess when we talk about loneliness, we’re really zeroing in on that vacant space in our hearts reserved for “the one” who will come along and be by our sides through thick and thin, going to sleep beside us at night, brushing their teeth next to us in the bathroom in the morning, sitting across from us at the kitchen table, talking to us about the kids, the bills, the job, the vacation, whatever.
That’s the loneliness that’s hard to endure because most of us don’t really want to grow old alone.
In an episode of Sex and the City, Carrie asked, "Why do we let the one thing we don't have affect how we feel about all the things we do have?"
Good question.
Maybe it's because we allow ourselves to believe that this missing one thing means so much more than everything we do have. Maybe we lose sight of what's great about our lives because it's human nature to always want what we can't have.
Who knows?
Quote of the day:
“Four hundred years ago, another well-known English guy had an opinion about being alone. John Donne. He thought we were never alone. Of course, it was fancier when he said it. ‘No man is an island unto himself.’ Boil down that island talk and he just meant that all anyone needs is someone to step in and let us know we’re not alone.” – Meredith, “Grey’s Anatomy”
I’m just happy to hang around
-Travis, “Happy To Hang Around”
The thing about feeling alone is that it’s so easy to think you’re the only one who feels like shit and that nobody else out there could possibly understand just how bad you feel.
And then, there’s a site like PostSecret, where people anonymously send in these beautiful, sad postcards with their deep and darkest secrets and it’s strange thinking that there all these people out there who feel just as lost and alone.
It always makes me think of that old Beatles’ song where Paul McCartney asked, “All the lonely people --- where do they all come from?”
When I was in university, I remember how it always used to surprise me that someone would remember my name. I always felt pretty invisible --- like nobody could really be bothered to truly see me. And of course, I was too shut off from the rest of the world to make the effort to be the one to reach out.
So, yeah, I know a thing or two about being lonely.
The thing is, someone recently said to me that it was hard to imagine me ever being lonely. Yeah, I’m close to my sisters and to my family --- I’m lucky in that way. I have sisters who are like friends and I always know that I can go to them about anything.
I’m lucky because I’ve known my best friend for 22 years and we’re still really close.
I actually have friends that I can count on in an emergency because I’ve had emergencies and I never found myself alone in those moments. I always had someone.
But I guess when we talk about loneliness, we’re really zeroing in on that vacant space in our hearts reserved for “the one” who will come along and be by our sides through thick and thin, going to sleep beside us at night, brushing their teeth next to us in the bathroom in the morning, sitting across from us at the kitchen table, talking to us about the kids, the bills, the job, the vacation, whatever.
That’s the loneliness that’s hard to endure because most of us don’t really want to grow old alone.
In an episode of Sex and the City, Carrie asked, "Why do we let the one thing we don't have affect how we feel about all the things we do have?"
Good question.
Maybe it's because we allow ourselves to believe that this missing one thing means so much more than everything we do have. Maybe we lose sight of what's great about our lives because it's human nature to always want what we can't have.
Who knows?
Quote of the day:
“Four hundred years ago, another well-known English guy had an opinion about being alone. John Donne. He thought we were never alone. Of course, it was fancier when he said it. ‘No man is an island unto himself.’ Boil down that island talk and he just meant that all anyone needs is someone to step in and let us know we’re not alone.” – Meredith, “Grey’s Anatomy”
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