Secular Australia Now!

Prometheus Medallion^

I don't usually write political posts.  People who know me know that I avoid getting involved in politics if I can at all help it.

There's a number of reasons for this.  In part it's an acknowledgement of ignorance - I'm not very familiar with political matters and as I don't have any particular desire to delve deeply enough into that quagmire to feel I have the right to comment, I simply by and large don't.

I do, however, have some extremely firm views about certain subjects.  And, so, I'm writing a quasi-political post right now.

This is part of my argument for a review of the secular nature of Australia and its government.  Read on if you want to see more.

The Seduction of Solitude

Solitude, Charles S. Pearce, 1889

Sometimes I'm in a real people-mood.  Sometimes the only thing I really want to do is throw myself into the deep end and mingle, talk, chat, laugh, hug.

This isn't one of those times.

This is one of the other times, one of those moments when I wonder if I really do have any business interacting with other people - those outside an extremely select few.

How do we get to this?  How do we manage to wrap ourselves into knots?

I can't ever finish this sentence properly.

My mind is awhirl with self-doubt and questions.  I can't think straight.  I hurt from so many emotional wounds and yet I can't let myself wallow for long, will not give into the seduction of solitude.

Anyone who's been in this mindset knows what that is.  For those of you lucky enough not to, I'll endeavour to explain.

The seduction of solitude is that urge that makes you want to retreat from the rest of the world.  It's the part of you that wonders if the outside world isn't a place you should be in.  It's the urge in the back of your head that says, when you look at the door, 'There's nothing worth bothering with out there.'

We know it's not true, of course... most of the time.  Reclusive people give in to it.  Almost everyone gives in to it some times.  Hermits give in completely.

I want to give in to it right now.

But I won't.


It's getting harder and harder to resist as I get older.  Some days it feels like there'd be nothing better than to collect together those few people I always want around me and stick just to them, to ignore the outside world entirely.  It's one step away from a much darker thought that I'm not going to allow myself.

Why am I even bothering to blog this?  Blogs are supposed to be about interesting things.