I am Living in the Ice Age
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Lately, I have been fascinated with the isolation that talented people sometimes feel. It seems that even if you have the means to express yourself, you will never truly be understood and you will remain feeling somewhat isolated. Abraham Maslow said that one of the steps towards self-realization is to be “alone but not lonely.” When you occupy your mind with thoughts of real substance, you can never feel emotionally lonely. Now, “real substance” is very subjective and could mean your job, you family, your house, maybe even your furniture. However, the problem is that those things are not permanent, and sooner or later you are going to lose them (well hopefully not your family because that would be depressing). On the other hand, if you occupy your mind with thoughts, dreams and inspirations you are going to become detached from society and start writing songs such as the one mentioned above. Edgar Allan Poe said that:
“They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night” (Eleonora)
Omitting some of the obvious reasons for day-dreaming loneliness, I have to say that one of the main reasons for the isolation that those people feel is seeing that there is no escape, but still searching for it.
How do they explain that to those who dream only by night? They really can’t. They can write songs, poetry, do stand-up, but I feel like all of those things are done just to “plant the seeds” for someone in the future, rather than a desperate call for understanding now, at this moment.
This is why the most influential people that we know of today, are said to have had “universal ideas.” I also believe that most of them were alone, but not lonely, because of the state of equanimity that they had reached. Still, I think that the ideas that spurred in their minds, as a result of self-realization, can only be truly felt by an individual who shares the same mindset. Sharing the same mindset, however, requires you to dream by day, which makes you feel like you are living in the ice age. So, we are back to where we started. We are stuck in the ice age, aren’t we?
I think that it would have been great if we lived in the ice age right now– we wouldn’t have all of those distractions that we have today. Maybe we will even dream all the time instead of choosing between day and night. Enjoy the song bellow!
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3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Thanks for the article and song! Here are my random thoughts…
The beauty of talent is that it does not have boundaries and specific definition. However, in my lifespan I have encountered only two types of people – plain and talented. My observation is that the plain individuals live and think in the present. The talented people live in the present, think about the future and reflect/draw conclusions from their experience (from the past).
“Alone but not lonely” - I completely support this idea. I consider myself a talented person. I am also most productive during the night, because nobody is around me. However, I feel miserable if I can not share my thoughts with others, thus I hate to be lonely :).
I do not live in the Ice Age. I live in the Land of Time. My biggest problem is that I do not have enough time to accomplish what I want. There are so many ideas in my head, there are so many things that I want to do in 24 hours. Every day, I simply throw my time in the trash by thinking what I should do first, second, etc. I am working on a new time management plan. I have been working on it for the past 5 years.
Jul 25th, 2008
The truly talented person has come to see life in terms of the B-values (see http://www.maslow.org/sub/bvals.htm). This is the equivalent of saying that he/she has connected with a part of self which is greater than self. Talent flows through B-valves, as it were. Also, when one *knows* one is talented, this moves self-esteem to self-efficacy, and being alone simply means threre is more to do.
You might look at Colin Wilson’s “The Outsider.”
Jul 26th, 2008
@ dennis - Thank you for the comment. I am the same way - I feel more comfortable at night when I can’t be easily disturbed. I have the same problem with time. I think the main reason for that is, because talented people like to invest so much of themselves into what they do. There are so many ideas and so little time.
@ sam - Thank you for the suggestions; I did not know about the B-values, this is good information. When you mentioned the “greater than self” part, I was reminded of some of Freud’s philosophy, or what he described as “oneness with the universe.”
Jul 27th, 2008
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