Loneliness The ladies at the quilt meeting tonight were talking about this, and it made me think. In my mind, there are two types of loneliness:
>Due to isolation from a group of people, particularly when surrounded by them; for example if you are in a foreign country or a group that is antagonistic to you. I'm pretty familiar with this sort, having known it all my life. I've never fit in, and to be honest, didn't want to. The solution to this sort is to avoid being in such company, and most especially large groups of them.
> Due to missing a particular person, whose place cannot be filled by another. There isn't much to be done about this except to endure it. Happily, there are very few people that I care for enough to miss that keenly. (Yeah, there is the other side of the coin, too. Whatever...) Again, this sort is not alleviated by the company of other people, since their presence serves only to highlight the absence of the other.
So for either type, the solution is the same, to stay away from people unless they are the sort that you truly want to be around. Solitude is healing and beneficial in such circumstances.

The quilting gals, however, were apparently on a whole different wavelength. They spoke of how intolerable it would be to live in the woods if their spouse passed away, how cars and trucks passing by would make them feel better (?). Extraneous people just irritate me if I'm lonely...I don't get it at all.