That title comes from a Sondheim song, a primal scream of singleness called “Being Alive”:
“Someone to need you too much
Someone to know you too well
Someone to pull you up short
And put you through hell
…Make me alive, make me confused
Mock me with praise, let me be used
Vary my days, but alone is alone, not alive!”

Fine little picture of the modern version of romantic thought, no? “You’re so wonderful, sweetie. You drive me right up the wall, but you vary my days and anyway, at least I’m not alone.” No wonder Dr. Laura Schlessinger has a three-hour show.

Doing a little catching up on Steven’s “Pithless Thoughts” brought me to this entry that dovetails with my thoughts about loneliness in the last post, but does a considerably better job and, in spite of his blog title, provides some very pithy and quotable moments.

I see a distinction between lonely and alone that is grounded in God. Alone is a choice. Lonely is a consequence.

Amen and amen. It has taken me a loooong time to begin to understand that difference. Some people are terrified of being alone, but I assume that that’s either because they’re terrified of the silence or if they’re terrified of hearing what their own demons, or their own conscience, will say in the silence.

The entire human race is afraid of being alone. But much of the human race cannot face the fact they are indeed alone and are grasping at illusions and images, relationships of fog that obscure the bleak landscape within them. The sickness of the soul is to live without real love.

And the only cure for the soul is Truth.