Do you remember the film, “Cast Away?” Tom Hanks plays a systems analysist named Chuck who is marooned on an island quite unexpectedly when his flight goes down over the Pacific Ocean. In this movie, you get a front-row seat on how a person might deal with loneliness. From hopelessness, to anger, to desperation, to finding a way. He’s alone on this island for four years! Meanwhile, he’s declared dead by family and friends back home. Chuck’s only friend is a volleyball that washed ashore from the plane wreckage. This ball becomes Chuck’s only friend: “Wilson.” Chuck becomes very familiar with the truth about loneliness.
Loneliness is a condition common to so many people on earth. Truly, every person has known some kind of loneliness at some point in their life – people from young to old, famous to regular folks, higher education to lesser opportunity. In fact, I would say loneliness is, unfortunately, a human condition. And some suffer significantly from loneliness for various reasons.
Incidentally, did you know you can be in a crowd of people and still feel lonely? You can be surrounded by people – even people you enjoy – all day – and still experience pangs of loneliness.
One can learn a lot about a word – in this case, a condition – by looking at synonyms of the word. Some of the synonyms of loneliness are:
Have you ever felt any of those things? Do you remember a time in your life when the heartache of solitude was so strong, you felt you were literally withdrawn from people? It’s a sad kind of aloneness – a seclusion not desired. A kind of desolation or remoteness.
More Truth About LonelinessLoneliness is a condition brought about when lacking sufficient nurturing companionship. It can be depressing when deprived of...
