In his iconic Brave New World, one of Aldous Huxley’s recurring themes is the desire and mandate to never be alone. The whole life is taken up with working at a pre-determined vocation and otherwise being entertained in large groups. The eventual hero, The Savage, gravitated finally to an old lighthouse and hung himself when people came to gawk at him.
Although we don’t have the breeding centers and embryo development factories in that book, we appear, as a culture, to embrace the “never alone” aspects. Social media and TikTok addiction crowd out quiet contemplation and solitude’s many benefits. Nearly all strategically results-oriented self-worth remediation programs include periods of solitary meditation, thought, and self-awareness discovery. Quiet contemplation not only stimulates innovation but also helps us know who we are within our relational context.
As a full-time farmer, I spend many hours alone and find this time especially rewarding. Unplugging from the hurried-harried frenetic-frenzied life brings healing and progress on many levels. But one time in my life launched everything since.
In our home, I grew up on The Freeman for economics and Organic Gardening and Farming for agriculture. While I embraced compost over chemicals, my real soul conversion occurred when I was 24.
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