Solitude

I often wonder as a society, have we lost the ability to consume long-form content? Have our attention spans dwindled into nothing more than a few seconds?

The modern world is full of distractions, more than we’ve ever had previously. Blaise Pascal summed this up perfectly when he said,

All of humanity’s problems, stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Are we running away from ourselves? Knowingly keeping ourselves distracted so we don’t have to meet the person that awaits us in the solitude.

I read a passage in Dee Hocks Autobiography recently and l thought he summed it up beautifully.

Everywhere we go we take our giant with us. The insatiable desire to escape the present and seek paradise in the new and different. New places, new stations in life, new possessions – A futile quest to escape self.

That was written years ago and is possibly more true now than ever.

For me there is a beauty in solitude. It’s the discovery of self. I use solitude to learn, think and grow.

Solitude gives me the time to consume more long form content like books, articles, and podcasts and this content helps fuel my curiosity and allows me to learn more about the things I’m interested in.

There is so much to learn and only one opportunity to make it count.

Do not waste it.

J.H.Repetto