So This Is How The World Will End: by Rick Castro 8/2/2020
Is there an art to solitude?
That is the age old question. I’m going to challenge the idea that solitude during plague is something totally different from the rest of your lives, where perhaps going in and out of isolation is by choice. Self-isolation in now a world wide-twenty-four hour experience for everybody. Solitude is now the way of life.
All social norms are forever outdated. We now have a new recluse culture which is forming on a daily basis,
but for the most part failing.
but for the most part failing.
During the middle ages there was a practice of the anchorite or anchoress who would seal themselves off from the world in a spiritual quest to become closer to god. Unlike hermits anchorites were required to take a vow of stability of place, opting for permanent enclosure in cells often attached to churches.
Another practice was one of widows who with the death of their husband, also lost their standing and fortune. They had no way to take care of themselves. These widows came to be known as “recluse.” The recluse would have carpenters create an oubliette next to the gravesite of the husband. There she would be sealed in a structure of bricks that would only accommodate the recluse seated in a chair…. for the rest of her life. One or two bricks would be left open, so passerby's or family could pass her food. With the current plague straight out of the middle ages will cultural extremes return as well?
Is there a difference between self-isolation and solitude? One is by choice and one is mandatory. Perhaps living with restrictions and quarantines is now opening up to the pleasures of solitude. Like a fine wine, loneliness ages one gradually. We become calmer and sweeter or flat and dry, like dust.
So let’s explore solitude. Let’s embrace and discover ourselves.
Ahhh solitude… I do wish you would fall in love with me, because you look so good.
So this is how the world will end.
copyright- rick castro- 72020
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