Gday mate! Uhbloody hell sorry I've always been uncomfortable with
those words as a representation of my country. Sure I use them, but
many Australians will react in one of two ways if that is said to them.
They may laugh it off or go quiet and think youre an idiot. Id probably
react with the former rather than the latter. This column is basically
going to be about anything and everything that may be of interest.
Anything goes.
That said, I'm from a small town in Victoria.
That's the state Melbourne belongs to, for those who arent sure. I want
to discuss my first topic -- something that I am pretty familiar with-
loneliness. We all suffer from it sometime in our lives, but I want to
talk about some of the situations where it occurs. Why am I familiar
with this you ask?
Well I'll tell you even if you didnt ask,
Im an only child. Now Im sure some people out there are thinking, Who
cares. Im one too! but have they been left in a car for hours with
nothing to do but imagine the world outside and talk to themselves?
Have they spent hours with plastic toys creating worlds of their own?
Or have they had their two best friends in the world leave their high
school within months of each other? If they have or dealt with worse,
then I thank them for I really dont know that many people who have
experienced the same situations.
Loneliness, as an only child
or anyone on their own, can sometimes make you feel as if youre the
only person in the world. At times, having that world interrupted by
outsiders can be frustrating. Its a funny situation because, on the one
hand, its great that they are around to keep you company, but, on the
other hand, they are stopping you from connecting with your own
adventures. Ill give you an example. As a kid, my two cousins visited,
something they very rarely did. I had all the toys lying around in the
room and of course they came in and upset the strange harmony or
strategic positioning of the various figures. Did I just let them have
their fun, while I was planning World War 3? No way! A fight broke out.
Needless to say, I won. Probably because I was the most angry and
obsessed. Now imagine if we were three different countriesId probably
be North Korea.
I think education can have a lot to do with
loneliness, I've seen many people in this world not talk to one another
simply because they believe are not on each others level. Hes/Shes so
smart, I wont understand whats going on, or, This guy/girl doesnt even
know where Melbourne is. I dont really think that it is such an
impossible task for this kind of communication to be achieved; we just
need to reach out.
For example the baker can tell the lawyer
about how the cake mixture was not right: theres a conversation just by
discussing work. Since were talking about education, lets look at a
high school scenario. Youre the wonder brain of your class. You cant
seem to talk to anyone else about the work because they either dont
care or arent at the same level. The solution to this is not to stop
talking and sit in the corner. Its to find that common ground. There is
sure to be another person in that room who hates to eat their
vegetables or likes to watch The Simpsons. The opening up to each other
seems to be the hard part instead of name calling first and becoming
friendly later.
I'm going to come a little full circle here,
by mentioning writers loneliness. Its kind of similar to the only child
scenario, not in the way that the only people you tend to argue with is
your parents (story of my life), but that writers have their
voice/imagination which is the equivalent of the childs made-up-world.
You are in that world when writing is great; you love that no one is
interfering with what you are writing... but what if someone wants to
help out? That could be great too. This is where its tricky, should we
share our little worlds or get lost in them by ourselves? In this case
Id prefer the latter. Guess Im still a bit of an only child.
Saving the Tigers from extinction It was a hurriedly organized citizen’s meeting at Guwahati Press Club, where serious concerns were expressed at the increasing trend of poaching and killing of wildlife in various parts of Assam.
The EIP factor - what you should learn from it When we grow older, or get older for the sake of the argument, we tend to start seeing the world only from one side. We tend to believe, no, not believe but know, how things are done. If you are smart, you understand that it shouldn't be that way, you understand this is wrong.
USA says on 2012-03-09 02:42:07 about AHNPhWMaiRoMDzOtQIY
OvJhHD Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Much thanks again. Really Cool.
Matt Holt says on 2004-06-17 18:44:20 about In reply to comment by nyigeulis
Thank you for your feedback. It's good to hear from people on this issue, regarding their situation and how they feel. This way, all readers can learn something about one other.
Copyright Matt Holt, 2004
nyigeulis says on 2004-06-16 07:07:37 about another story
I myself are lonely too. But it's not because of being the only child. It's because I have no partner to share everything of my life. And my 2 married sisters live with their family. So, I just live with my mom.
Means that so many kinds of loneliness. It's depend on the situation we have. But I ever heard the wise words "the loneliness is my best friend"
Matt Holt says on 2004-06-14 05:13:52 about In reply to comment by anonymous
Well I never really considered this article as a question/answer piece, however I will add that the answer seems to be in two places, depending on what works for you. The answer to loneliness must come from within or from an external source.
Let me explain, to find the solution within, you need to be happy about yourself and the time that you spend by yourself. Loving yourself, having confidence and all the other facets of being able to think internally is an important step, especially if you can live with what your mind says back. Happily spending the time by yourself seems to be greatly improved by having hobbies, sports, a career and just general tasks that you enjoy; these keep you interested with single life.
Looking outside to cure loneliness can be just as good a solution or even better. The risks are as negative as the benefits are positive. Finding a partner, a friend, a group or a club is sometimes challenging, but there are tools we can use to combat this, the internet is one of them.
All-in-all remember, most of us are born alone, most of us die alone and there are many lonely moments in between, for all of us this is a fact, but we can make the best of these times by accepting our independent nature or chatting or hugging, whatever your preference. This is my opinion.
Whether we want to admit it or not, even now, in year 2012, there are still big gender biases in some fields of life. While it's generally understandable that men should do more heavy lifting than women and knitting fits a bit better for the women (even though I am aware even here there are many people who want to disagree), art is one of those things where our gender really should not play any significant role at all. And within the past decade things have started to change even on this front and even on the more conservative arenas such as Bukowskis - the top Nordic auction house.
