It was a Pleasure to Meet You

The more people I met the lonelier I felt. I'm certain I never felt quite so alone as a child, and I knew fewer people back then. Moreover, it seemed to be the ratio that made the difference - as a child the majority of the people I knew were a priority to me and then a good number of those people died. A vast majority of the people I know now are for civility's sake. This imbalance must have caused the loneliness that visited me when I was not alone.

I proposed a remedy to self to fill my life with people of priority, and fill the gaps with books. I thought I had done this, but at times the loneliness still lurked. And the books were a poor choice to fill the gaps, as it was not the moments I had alone that irked me. "Perhaps if I employed the books in a new fashion," I thought, "and used them as projectiles at unwanted persons I'd at least be saved from enduring the idiocy fastened so resolutely to the crowd. But then I would be alone and have nothing to read. "