Alone
“More people, especially men, hate being alone with their thoughts,” a small article in the Herald said Friday. “So much, in fact, that they would rather be in pain. In a study published in Science on the ability of people to let their minds ‘wander’ – that is for them to sit and do nothing but think – researchers found that about a quarter of women and two-thirds of men chose electric shocks over their own company. When left alone for a 15-minute thinking session…” the study participants who chose pain, shocked themselves an average of 7 times.
What does this suggest about the possibilities for peace, calm and quiet? What chance to be a human being – compassionate, creative, joyous and grateful – if many of us must be human doings – always busy, never at rest, constantly buzzed and buzzing? If people can’t stand to be alone with themselves, what chance they will allow themselves to be alone with themSelves?
