Monday, March 9, 2009

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

If you are a Net addict (or someone who spends roughly 1/3 of his/her waking hours online), I'll bet you never said or even thought that you are lonely. After all, you are not: you have over a zillion friends on Facebook, people leave you messages on your wall, leave gifts, send music etc.

For some people, admitting loneliness is akin to telling your Boss that you're schizophrenic. It is something terrible and embarrassing. There has to be something wrong with you if you are lonely: don't you know how to make friends? What happened to the best mates in uni/school/last hell hole (aka workplace) that you were so tight with? And if you are not married, then it's your fault for being lonely; so choosy one lah ... and so on.

The thing is, you can have people leaving messages on your Facebook wall every day and be lonely. You could lie in bed with the love of your life (or so you thought when you married him/her) and ache with loneliness. You can work in an environment filled with people who talk to you and still be miserably alone.

Is it a state of mind or a state of being? Can one grimly resolve to not be lonely and fill one's life with activities and people? Does that work? Or do you accept that it is your fate, down all the painkiller in your medicine cabinet and slit your wrist for good measure?

Apparently, loneliness is not something you can pooh-pooh at and sweep under the carpet. It affects you,: body, mind and soul. This article definitely makes you contemplate your state of aloneness.

But like Sartre (I think) said, "Hell is other people."

*snerk*

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