On "Let Me Say This About That"

From William Gentry

Troy,

I completely understand the primal urge to find solitude as being a human need in a lot of people (though not all have this urge) and I think it reflects a basic insecurity in some people to not want to be alone at times. It takes a very secure and imaginative person to need solitude on an occasional basis and I think our culture in general views this need with suspicion as being antisocial.

I have spent a lot of my life seeking aloneness through mountain climbing, scuba diving, hiking, camping, solo flying, etc.

When you are alone with just yourself and the natural forces that have controlled most of human destiny, you discover a contrasting sense of connectedness and outsidedness with the world and universe. A sense of being inherently part of and at the same time outside of the natural order of the cosmos. This is what is frightening to some people. They compensate by filling their lives with the attention of other people and things (new cars,pets, clothes,religion, whatever) to try to never feel alone. While to us (loners), being alone in a wilderness with as few things and people as possible is a chance to feel whole.

I recently drove (yes,an SUV because I don't have a camel) for three days into the Rub Al'Khali without even roads or goat paths to follow. This is the world's largest uninhabited desert. Even though man has not lived here for thousands of years, I found neolithic spear points and pottery shards that told me I was not truly alone. Sitting on top of a 400-foot sand dune at night, I was not able to see or hear any sign of human existance other than myself. The clear cold night air offered visibility for at least 50 miles in any direction. The stars were so bright you could count the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter with a cheap WalMart telescope. The only other living creatures I encountered were five camels who spent the night one sand dune away from my camp. I suppose they had had enough solitude for a while and wanted to spend the night near the liveliest place in town - my campsite. (Maybe they were planning to steal my waterbags after dark.)

I had time to think about several moral and ethical issues at once here. Whose water is it, really? If it comes down to me against them over my water, who should I side with? Does God want me to share it with them and risk not surviving myself? I can see why the three greatest monotheistic religions of mankind evolved in this little corner of the world.

I just wish that more people could understand this basic human need to find themselves through aloneness. The world might become a much healthier place.

Chef Troy responds

William -

It sounds as though you had a transcendent experience out there. I know very well what you mean when you say that society regards a desire for solitude as suspect - although your willingness to actually take an SUV off-road and get the tires dirty already marks you as a dangerous subversive. *grin*

I don't think the desire for solitude is a basic human need at all, though - if it were, it wouldn't be regarded with suspicion. Rather, it's a need that drives a particular out-of-the-ordinary type of human, the type that in the old days went into the mountains seeking a mystic experience and came back as shamans, forever marked as "different." The problem nowadays is that the link between "different" and "special" in the minds of the tribe has been severed.