Solitude in my view has always sounded more poetic versus Loneliness. After reading your blog I was curious as to what the actual definitions are of Solitude and Loneliness. When you look it up online, what jumped out to me is that Solitude seems to be more of a choice and has a positive connotation linked to it. On the other hand, Loneliness has a negative connotation and is more of a feeling. Loneliness is something that isn’t really something you can just shake off even when you are in a crowd full of people or even if you are married. Solitude when retreated into can be useful but I’m not sure the same can be said of Loneliness.
Wonderful discussion of, to me, a poignant topic. I find it interesting to explore the element of avoidance in this dynamic- avoiding being with oneself by interacting with others, avoiding the challenge of interacting with others by retreating into solitude, and further variations...
Thank you for this!
Solitude in my view has always sounded more poetic versus Loneliness. After reading your blog I was curious as to what the actual definitions are of Solitude and Loneliness. When you look it up online, what jumped out to me is that Solitude seems to be more of a choice and has a positive connotation linked to it. On the other hand, Loneliness has a negative connotation and is more of a feeling. Loneliness is something that isn’t really something you can just shake off even when you are in a crowd full of people or even if you are married. Solitude when retreated into can be useful but I’m not sure the same can be said of Loneliness.
So interesting that you should say this. Edu PE (writing in Spanish) has a similar approach:
https://substack.com/@edupe/note/c-73947501?r=ha46b
Wonderful discussion of, to me, a poignant topic. I find it interesting to explore the element of avoidance in this dynamic- avoiding being with oneself by interacting with others, avoiding the challenge of interacting with others by retreating into solitude, and further variations...
Thanks for this meaningful discussion!
This is so interesting: Both interaction and isolation, you're saying, can be ways of running away from ourselves.
👍🙂