the cry is desperate, sometimes filled with agony, sometimes rage, most often a simple plea.
why is it so difficult for the world (composed of other humans who have all had the same desire for solitude sometime or the other) to accept that one might simply not want to participate in its affairs?
why make outcasts of the ones who are 'different' just because of who they are, what their nature makes them be? is living on their own terms so horrific a disease that they have to physically remove themselves from society, become hermits?
how many beautiful people have we chased out from our midst because they wouldn't 'fit in'?
how many sublime ideas, how many works of art have we deprived the world of, by forcing seclusion upon them?
we blame the media for building people (both talented and worthy, as well as hollow gasbags) up into 'celebrities' and then cutting them off at the knees to watch them topple. it's a game that we love to play: like children playing at the beach, we love to build (or watch somebody build) up a sandcastle, and then derive wicked pleasure in trampling it all down and grinding it into the dirt.
'society' - a convenient word created to replace the closer-to-home words 'you' and 'me'.
god rest your soul, mr.salinger (if you believed in god and thought you had a soul)
Why don't you write with caps at the beginning of sentences like everyone else? What's wrong with you?
ReplyDeleteJust kidding! :D
Welcome to blogging from a fellow round peg in a square hole.
O sublime ape. Nice to see you sublimate. i do not intend to leave you alone (on this blog at least). lkg fwd to many more of what we Don't know. and then the you and me shall come home...
ReplyDeletepeace
Welcome to blogging and you have started with a bang! Happy blogging :)
ReplyDeleteHey SA...know what...a hermit's preference to lead life in a certain way...deems neither contempt, nor pity or even awe...its a very normal state for them to be in...so just let them be...okay? Good. Oh...and one thing more...please consider NOT spamming your contacts!! Super thanks!
ReplyDeletedear anonymous,
ReplyDeletefirstly, thanks for your comment. secondly, i think you just reiterated what i wanted to say (kindly reread para 3). glad to know someone agrees!
...and i'm terribly sorry if i sent you an unwanted invite (please pm me & i'll delete your id from my list immediately). i promise you it'll never happen again.
sincere thanks and apologies,
SA
Apology accepted and much appreciated SA. Have worked out a resolution to the nuisance... blocking your e-mail from all my webmails' privacy/filter settings ought to attain the desirable! Oh and before I carry out the obliteration... let me give you something more to fret and fume about... there is no need to gloat over a fait accompli... propounded aeons ago...!!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much.
Be well...
can understand your sentiments..mountain monk
ReplyDeleteThe answer,perhaps, lies in the fear of change everyone experiences in varying degrees and forms. Those guys that fit in, maybe, they're scared too. And in the case of Mr.Salinger, I believe he had opted to remain a recluse. That too happens, you should know SA. Glad to see you here. That's a lot of inspiration. Happy blogging!
ReplyDeletedear uma,
ReplyDeletei'll take the risk of sounding controversial and say that salinger (like almost every hermit) took the easy way out. you see, the people who 'fit in' are making a constant effort to 'fit in' (an incredibly strenuous exercise). but i respect his decision (as i respect every individual's right to choose for themselves how to live their lives).
i'll be discussing this matter in a future post, and offer some really weird ideas about how to reduce the strain of living amidst the 'teeming masses'.
Don't you see there are two kinds of isolated existences- one when society imposes it on people who don't follow its rules, and the second when the person in question chooses to stay aloof for various reasons? And wouldn't you agree that, in a way, we are all alone in this vast world? Isn't this thing called fitting in just an illusion, a mask?
ReplyDeletedear ST,
ReplyDeleteno man/woman is an island. for good or bad (again, words i feel uncomfortable using), this adage shoves the reality down our throats. can you honestly say that you've ever managed to (successfully) isolate yourself from the 'madding crowd'?
you can put me in a stadium full of people, and i could stay 'switched off' (the expression 'solitary in a crowd' was concocted to describe people like me, and i'm guessing you're one of them). but, i'd HAVE TO wake up, and continue living in the great marketplace that is humanity, whether i wished or not.
i believe--no matter how much we would like to have it otherwise--being a hermit (specially in today's world) is impossible. and because we stubbornly refuse to fit in, and yet continue to exist, it is the 'i-am-a-recluse' part of us that is the illusion.
...but then, dreams are always more beautiful than real life, aren't they?
ps. nice blog you have there. always love to discover another sensitive soul out there.