Loneliness
There's so much of it out there that it's no longer out there. It's inside and all around us. And it seems to attack just when you are no longer alone. I used to feel lonely, sometimes abandoned even, when I was surrounded by people. I'm living alone, by myself, for the first time in my life. But now I rarely ever feel lonely. Maybe it is just a side-effect of my illness, but maybe it's much more than that. For the times we live in, being alone is probably the best antidote to loneliness.

I just read a poem about loneliness, on a website where people leave comments on their favourite poems by their favourite poets. Everyone left similar messages to the poet - Thank you. Reading this made me feel like there's someone out there who shares my loneliness. It's nice to know I'm not alone in feeling lonesome.

There is a sea of loneliness out there and everyone is swimming in it.

So, why do we feel lonely when there are so many of us? It's a world that is so fast and in your face that you're always bumping into people, even in the virtual world now. You have 347 friends on Facebook, 405 contacts in your phonebook, and 564 addresses in your email account but you're still lonely. You might have someone to snuggle up to in bed every night, or someone to hold your hand every morning, or someone to walk in the rain with on the weekend, but you're still lonely.

We now have a hundred different ways of connecting - home phone, office phone, mobile phone, internet phone, satellite phone, car phone, emergency phone, video phone, conference phone, email, fax, Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, Orkut - but can you really reach out to someone or let someone in? For every one of those hundred ways that people can reach you, you have a hundred ways to shut them out.

Loneliness. The great leveller. The people's project. The human stain. Does your dog or cat ever feel lonely? Does the lion in the jungle ever hop over to the herd of bison and sing Are You Lonesome Tonight? Does a fruit fly ever think Man, these have been the loneliest 30 minutes of my life?

Chances are they're all trying to kill each other so that they can stand alone at the end - vanquisher of the enemy, victor over the spoils, conqueror of fate - while we're all, you know... feeling lonely.