Rating: 
Summary: Good Food for Thought
Review: We use words to express thought and when we have no time for thought we let the words do the thinking - or rather we take the thought expressed by a word for granted. Consider `loneliness' - no need for explanations. Loneliness equals sadness, pain, tears, crying, despair, anti-social, or odd character, lack of companionship, lovelessness etc. Check the song lyrics for verification, `Are you lonesome tonight?', `Have you ever been lonely, have you ever been blue?', `Oh lonesome me', `I am so lonesome I could cry' etc. For long I have being puzzled by an inner conflict. I don't consider myself anti-social and yet I do not take to company easily. When I do and as the subject inevitably turns to rumor, money, sports, who bought what, how much does it cost, who went out with whom and other gossip, my mind begins to pain. I smile the most neutral smile I can produce to signal I accept in advance whatever the company says and embrace the first occasion to depart. At that point, being alone, yes, loneliness is my freedom. Attempting to find out if I am odd and if so, how much, I bought and read `Celebrating Time Alone'. It is good reading and, thank God, it is not a `how to' book. It did not promise nor has given me the mental triceps needed to knock out loneliness in the first round. Celebrating Time Alone instructs without teaching, which I always found the best way to learn. The author, a survivor of the corporate world, took up residence - alone but for a dog and a lizard - in a secluded corner of the Longview Peninsula in Washington State. He has traveled throughout the country talking to people with radically different characters but with one thing in common, their choice to live alone. Their answers, their experiences, their way to cope with life are intriguing. At times while reading I found myself saying, `I did not think about it that way' - for me, usually, a sign that I learned something. The author blends the thoughts and experience of the `lone subjects' with his own experience and thoughts as one who chose to live alone. The results are often surprising and constructive. After finishing the book I decided I am not as odd as I thought. At one time or another being alone is inevitable. Celebrating Time Alone shows paths towards making the experience positive. Quoting again a well known song lyric, I found in this book some aces I could keep. Five Thumbs.
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