Introversion – nine

A Sole Soul is Solid
Solace in Solitude

-W.E.

Dedicated to a friend who is going through a hard time.

Know that your ability to take comfort in solitude is not a detriment to your character. If you just nurture it more, you will find it will be a palm tree amongst weeds of society.

You will provide shade, support and sanctuary  and will welcome the breeze of comfort whilst they leech in the decorative of the garden.

You will be the back support for a reader leaning themselves on you.

You will be the sanctuary for a child to climb and or hide behind.

You will be the lure for lovers to lay and gaze into each others eyes.

You will be the respite for a traveller seeking shade whilst the weeds do nothing but cause anguish wherever they dwell, providing nothing more than labour for society to constantly maintain the garden of the communities they reside in.

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John Taylor Gatto, a famous historian on education, writer and speaker amongst being teacher of the state several times notes well in his books about selection criteria of prestigious schools such as Harvard and Princeton.
The admissions officers choices would surprise many. Eight out of ten people with very high grades were rejected and when asked what they used to select the candidates, the answer was simply ‘hobbies’.

Astounded, John probed further and the reasons were given that hobbies was a part of the CV that peoples honesty could not be faked. They looked for three things in particular. A social hobby, an intellectual hobby and a sporting hobby.
Of note, they didn’t like team sports. They specifically looked for lone sports, even extreme sports which were more likely to imply the person had developed far more internal character and reliance on themselves. They didn’t need a team behind them and were never one to hide behind the support or accolades of others. They only held themselves accountable for their successes or failures.

Something to think about, as we don’t encourage our children enough to be on their own, to learn to be comfortable relying on themselves.