Contributed by columnist Sarah Hudson Pierce
The author and aviator, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, born in 1906 wrote “The world does not understand, in either man or woman, the need to be alone.”
She went on to say “how inexplicable it seems. Anything else will be accepted as a better excuse. If one sets aside time for a hairdresser, a social engagement, or a shopping expedition, that time is accepted as inviolable. But if one says: I cannot come because this is my hour to be alone, one is considered rude, egotistical, or strange. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect; when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it — like a secret vice!”
She had much to say about our need for solitude.
Anne was also the wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh whose child was kidnapped in 1929 and later found dead.
Anne went to the sea to spend six weeks alone — to write Gift From The Sea, a historic book which delves into our need to be alone and to restore herself and to hear herself think.
That’s my take on it.
We tend to extol extroverts and criticize introverts for whatever reason..
For Thanksgiving and Christmas all I wanted was some time alone.
What’s wrong with that?
I need time to think, to reach within, to explore what else is out there that I need to record as a legacy for my family and friends who care to read my thoughts.
So what’s so wrong with all of that?
We live in a society of constant background noise. as though we are afraid to be alone with ourselves.
We can’t get together without the big screen.
That is OK for others but not for me.
I need to think, to center down, to renew myself, my creative energy.
At the age of seventy, I sense that I have a wealth of stories that I need to write but how when I seem to have to steal minutes alone.
No one is demanding my time but I feel an obligation that I have placed upon myself because I care a little too much for others but not enough for me.
I think we live in a society that thinks it’s wrong to want to be alone for a span, to hear ourselves think.
I went through years of pain in the orphanage, then to be in a most difficult role as a minister’s wife — too much to write about.
Anyway we have to walk in someone’s shoes to understand the path they walk.
I’ve heard it said that extroverts accomplish more than introverts but it takes just a moment to research the difference.
It’s believed that Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Doctor Seuss to name but a few were introverts and may have had a form of autism.
The truth is I believe that many people are afraid to be alone, to hear themselves, to learn how to deal with pain which is why some people become closet drinkers.
Enough said, and maybe not.