[at-l] the Solitude Log - anyone?

[Jim Bullard]

Hmmmm? I have never thought of solitude as something I could quantify. It is
a moment-to-moment thing for me. Nor do momentary encounters with other
people necessarily "disqualify" the solitude I experience outside that
moment. Yesterday I took a hike to do one of my lean-to maintenance trips. I
saw 9 people. The first was a guy in the parking lot whom I asked the date
(retiree syndrome) so I could write it on my parking permit. Three others
were camped at one of the sites I 'police' in conjunction with my duties. We
didn't speak. They went away to climb a mountain or something. The next two
were a young couple hiking past the lean-to as I recorded my visit. I
initiated a brief conversation. The final 3 were a mother and two children
at the register box as I was exiting the woods. I asked where they were
headed (they had no gear, zero, zilch, nada, not even a water bottle). The
mother said "to the nature museum". I informed her that it was back the way
they came. They had passed it several hundred yards back. On the way home I
stopped at Mountain Pond, one of my favorite haunts, and spent about 90
minutes paddling about in my canoe. There were 2 tents on the shore but no
sign of people. I shared the pond with a pair of loons.

If anyone asked how I spent the day I would respond "alone". As far as I was
concerned I was alone. My brief encounters were incidental. When I got home
my wife commented that I'd had a fairly cloudy day. That sort of surprised
me since what I recalled was sunshine. As I thought about it there had been
clouds passing and when I reviewed my day mentally I recalled points when
there were more clouds than sun but my overall impression was sun. I think a
sense of solitude is something you cultivate in yourself. It is like the sun
that was behind the clouds that I barely noticed until they were brought to
my attention. A log of solitude would necessarily require me to give too
much attention to those encounters that briefly interrupted my solitude and
by recording them on a chart, exaggerate their importance. I think I prefer
to keep those brief interruptions, like the passing clouds, on the periphery
of my consciousness.

-- 
Jim Bullard
http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/