Alone Yet Among

It is a good book to read. The mind enters sentences and paragraphs. A mood is noted. A person is present. We learn a bit about the person, her thoughts, his feelings, the struggle under contemplation. We sense the beginning of a story. A reason for this monolog. A reach into a near future. Something is building.

The book becomes a refuge. Waiting between the covers is a mind niche, a ‘place’ to go and ponder, to lose oneself apart from and still within the world.

Reading does not shut out the sound of a door closing, a doorbell, the phone, or even a microwave oven signal. Other footfalls in the home are sensed, even heard. Others are near and functioning in their world.

I am in my place, though, pulled into a story’s vortex.

Driving the car on an errand, I note other vehicles. We accommodate each other and wend our ways to destinations near and far without incident. Traffic lights are encountered and survived. Turns, stops and starts are negotiated.

My thoughts focus on the day’s agenda. The tasks needing to be done, the lists to make, the calls and meetings to transact. Working up an idea that begs sustenance, my concentration deepens. The miles and navigation are managed while the mind does its work on the idea.

The sound system in the living room pours forth its music in amazing clarity and detail. The hundreds of years old symphony challenges the brain afresh. The chordal structure, harmonies and sweep of tempo engages logic and feeling. The art demands attention. Ideas pop forward involuntarily. Here a forest, there a mountain view, or canyon, or natural wonder too expansive to ignore. Or maybe it is a dancing butterfly, a bird trilling on a high branch tossed about in the breeze.

Life holds much detail. Living pulls and pushes consciousness to many corners of existence. I encounter it alone but in the company of others. Somehow, we maneuver these cues and nudges without thinking intentionally. But the intended comes just the same. It cannot be ignored.

Among others we live out life. Alone we come to know. Myself and others. Together yet apart.

August 9, 2022

 

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