No Lunatic is an Island

‘No Man is an Island’ they say. ‘The Only Thing Worse than One is None’. It is true that we need people around us for social interaction, support, intellectual stimulation and, well, because that is what a society is: many different people living together. However, this system of working in unison towards certain purposes or goals, building relationships, sharing experiences, knowledge and feelings seems futile when individuals (like yours truly) are consciously choosing the path of the one man band.

I decided to take this route alone a long time ago: shutting people out, shielding myself from possible turmoil and rejecting support from the many who offered it to me in favour of the rationalisation that Almighty I would somehow McGiver myself out of the darkest times alone. Not foreseeing that isolating myself would induce feelings of loneliness and solitude that resembled the worst scenes of Cast Away, was definitely one of my less insightful moments, with of course many more nonsensical ones to follow suit.

It has taken many years for me to realise that, like immigrants, no matter how many barriers are put up, bad things and bad people will always find another way in. So I finally made the intelligent decision to let people into my battered world; to let them help and support me no matter how co-dependant it made me feel. Now that the plan is set – to develop my one woman island into a thriving metropolis of people, alliances, and support networks – I find myself wondering if people will want to join, or if the cynics will predict a solo performance from me once again. They have reason to believe this, but I guess all I can do is come up with a guest list, send out the Facebook invitations, entice them with promises of good times and many laughs, lots of punch … and hope that they will join me on my island.