What role has loneliness played in your life?

What kinds of loneliness have you experienced? Do you feel connected to others or not? How has this changed over the course of your life? Has your loneliness, if you have had any, been existential? If so, how is that different from other kinds of loneliness?

For me, loneliness has always been there, lurking in an existential way. It has driven me, driven me to find lovers in an attempt to achieve my holy grail—being one with someone else as in being in their head, mind with mind… no barriers.

Over the years I have come to grips with the hopelessness of that idea. It cannot happen. So I’ve tried to learn to feel like I am a person without knowing there are other people. I’ve been learning to be a person with these reflections that others provide for me. I’ve been learning to be grateful we don’t share minds.

But still, if I was ever given a chance, I would share a mind with someone I loved and who loves me. In a heartbeat!