Appreciating Solitude
I shared this thought on Facebook this morning, and since I hadn’t yet posted my Lent post for today I decided I would share it here also.
Before the current pandemic, I had started rereading “Brave New World.” I truly love dystopian literature. Not sure why, but I do. A couple of nights ago I came to this passage that I had to highlight because it speaks to our current situation.
“But all the same,” insisted the Savage, ” it is natural to believe in God when you’re alone–quite alone, in the night, thinking about death . . .”
“But people never are alone now,” said Mustapha Mond [the Controller]. “We make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it’s almost impossible for them ever to have it.”
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, chapter 17.
Perhaps, I think, as we are forced to give up our busyness during this pandemic, we will find the joy of solitude and get to know God again. I hope more of us come to truly believe in Him during this time.
Maybe we’ll even begin to appreciate and want to hold onto the slowness and pondering that are available to us now with so little effort, as long as we don’t waste them with binge watching Netflix and playing games on our phones.
And if you’ve never read Brave New World, written in 1931 and now a timeless classic, you really should. I suspect you do have some time for that right now.
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What a time to pick this up! I haven’t read many of the classics, but I love what I have read. I should get this one.
Thanks Linda! I haven’t read this, so it is going on my list! :).