“I think, therefore I am” may be a good enough starting point for some people. But not for me. I need other people at the beginning, the middle, and the end. Yet even as I write this, my conscience rises up to testify against me. I like being alone. I need to be alone. That’s how I store up energy to be with people. I’m even more at peace when I’m alone. All true. But I also know that everything creative or important that I try to do withers on the vine if I try to do it alone.
The seeds of this conundrum go back at least as far as that dark day in my freshman dorm room. As I lay there in the shadows, surveying the brokenness of my life scattered around me, I saw the J. Geil’s album that had helped me through the lonely times in high school. The lyrics of the title song, “Love Stinks,” certainly had new meaning for me.
You love her
But she loves him
And he loves somebody else You just can't win
And so it goes
'Til the day you die
This thing they call love
It's gonna make you cry
“Love Stinks” was repeated ten times at the end of the song. I could have joined in a full-throated agreement every single time. I was completely alone and the J. Geil’s Band seemed to have written the theme song for my life.
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