I was brought up to understand that loneliness is akin to a disease - it is an affliction of the self which weakens, marginalises and undermines the pursuit of life's goals.
Similarly, I was brought up to believe that diseases are afflictions which we should attempt to cure, except when the problem resides in the heads of those who injure or those who kill; they should be put to death because their deeds (which are a consequence of their illnesses) are too great for society ever to efface.
Of the two statements above, I no longer believe either of them. That is, I opine that criminals are ill, and should be given medicine instead of the death penalty and, since sitting up into the small hours of this morning thinking about the question, I no longer believe that loneliness is a disease. (The set of things I took as gospel when I was a child which I now ridicule are myriad. The things that remain, and the reasons for them remaining, are probably worth another blog post. I think there is something to be said for this 'chain-writing,' lighting up the next idea with the dregs of the previous one. It compensates somewhat for an inability to invent convincing characters, or even for the inability to put together more than a few hundred words at a time.)
When I think of the word 'disease,' I associate it (and Milan Badelj teaches me why I'm an associative learner) with such terms as 'debilitating,' or 'effacing' or 'sad.' Thus, up until now, when I think of loneliness (and lament the fact that I am lonely) I draw the conclusion that I have left myself somehow incomplete.
I feel that such negativity is no more than a mindset, and can be altered with patience and effort - loneliness is then perceived as a gift, a knack for tuning out the universe; the confidence to, alone, make lightning bolts and send them towards difficult targets; to atomise the self whilst surrounded by ways to connect, ways to augment the self.
Should I declare that what I see in the mirror is repellent, I'd be told firmly to accept what I have, because it is immutable. As for physical states, as for states of mind and being - this is loneliness, it is mine, and far from being an affliction, I see it as a gift.
