"We are all so much together and yet we are all dying of loneliness."--Albert Schweitzer
The above words of Albert Schweitzer drive home one of the greatest paradoxes of the human existence. Throughout the world people suffer simultaneously from overcrowding and from loneliness. A few people suffer from actually being isolated from other human beings. But, when most people speak of being lonely, they are expressing their perception that they don't have friends--not that they don't have contact with other people. We long for relationships with others that are based on sincere mutual respect and sharing. We need to be loved. Robert Louis Stevenson emphasized this fact when he wrote, "The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us."
Some people claim they don't need other people. Henry David Thoreau wrote, "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." And Edward Gibbon said, "I was never less alone than when by myself." Certainly we all need periods of solitude, but we also need companionship. Most of us would probably wholeheartedly agree with the lyrics of a once popular song which declared that, "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world." And many of us would agree with Mother Teresa who said, "Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible part of poverty."
What can we do about loneliness for both ourselves and for others? Most of us have many opportunities to reduce the loneliness of others. Are there any of us who cannot think of at least one person who would welcome a visit from us? There are so many "shut-ins" who desperately need the physical presence and caring of other people. And we meet people every day in our daily lives who need somebody to show an interest in them.
Some of us may ask, "Why should I try to make others less lonely when I am so lonely myself?" Perhaps the best answer to this question is that someone always has to take the initiative to get anything started. We can take the position that we will smile and speak to others only when they smile and speak to us first. But, what if everybody had that attitude? What if everybody followed the policy of doing kind things for others only when others initiate the first act of kindness? Wouldn't we then live in a world devoid of any kindness by anybody? Do any of us really want that? If we want to live in a less lonely world, why not start by trying to reduce the loneliness of others? Isn't there a possibility that our actions might also reduce our own loneliness?
Copyright 2014 Allen W. Smith
TB-52—Posted 05/31/2014
