The Virtues of Self-imposed Solitude
typed for your pleasure on 11 February 2005, at 4.48 pmSdtrk: ‘Wow’ by Kate Bush
Due to the nature of an extended joke between myself and Steve, my first ex-roommate, I was doing a bit of research on Teh Internets on the godlike* Morrissey, and ran across a splendid quote from this interview with him last year in the Guardian Unlimited. To be honest, it’s a Morrissey interview; most of the quotes are gonna be splendid. But this one really stood out in my mind:
“Well, you see, I consider [choosing to be alone] to be a privilege. I don’t feel like I live alone because I’ve made a terrible mistake or I’m difficult to look at. Can you imagine being able to do what you like and never having to put up with any other person? And their relatives.
“You can constantly develop when you’re by yourself. You don’t when you’re with someone else. You put your own feelings on hold and you end up doing things like driving to supermarkets and waiting outside shops – ludicrous things like that. It really doesn’t do.
“We feel that there’s a shame to being uncompromising and there’s a terrible sadness to solitude, but none of the great poets ever thought that.”
There he goes, striking nails on the head again. One of the things I always say is that I love my friends to death, but one of the best things about them is that at the end of the day, I can say ‘Bye, friends!’ and go home to be by myself. With other people in your home, you always have to take their wants & needs into consideration. Which may sound selfish — and I’ll admit that in a way, it is — but if you’re constantly doing stuff with or for others, when exactly do you have time for yourself?
Ideally, once I move North, I’d like to have a big enough place for a couple of mates to crash at, which will prevent them from forking out money for a hotel room or whatever, but as I’m fairly certain they’re not gonna be driving up to Canada every week-end, 99% of the time it’ll just be me, and my upcoming passel of RealDolls and other Synthetiks. 😉 Which is just the way I prefer it. No strange and unwanted people staying round wearing out their welcome, no having to drop everything you’re doing to drive someone from point A to point F, no panic at the end of the month when your roommate doesn’t have their half of the rent money. The only person I’ll have to answer to is myself.
Some people are just natural isolationists; this doesn’t make us sociopaths. It’s better to be by yourself on your own terms, than to be forced into living with others against your better judgement. I find that ever since I moved out of Steve’s place, we get on ten times better than we used to living under the same roof. Not to say that living there was bad, but it wasn’t all rootbeer & skittles, either. And needless to say, living with The Slag was fifty times worse.
Solitary living really is a much better solution than people initially think it is
*’godlike’ status only extends to Morrissey during his years with the Smiths. Now, he’s just ‘iconic’
Random similar posts, for more timewasting:
Operation: Mapleleaf (2005 edition) on October 24th, 2005
At the bedside of Mistress English Language, holding her hand as she wastes away on August 7th, 2005
February 13th, 2005 at 4.52 pm
Thanks v much for that excellent scribing 🙂
Even if only iconic now, his quote contains godlike wisdom!
And this echoes most definitely, of “Party of One: The Loner’s Manifesto” by Anneli Rufus.
If the Morrissey quote causes a reverberation in your psyche, give this book a try. It is written for like-minded souls 😀
All in all Lily and I enjoyed it very much!
February 15th, 2005 at 5.12 pm
Oh Jeez! I didn’t even see your Now Playing: Kate Bush’s “Wow!”
A belated tip o’ the hat in that esteemed goddess’ regard to your musical tastes, even more impeccable than ever!