The COVID pandemic has stimulated essays, blog posts, and ruminations on solitude and loneliness for iover a year, but often uneven, unfulfilled, and unconnected to larger themes. Many of these sincere efforts miss opportunities to express larger contexts.
Once in a while, a good connection to a classic or universal writer, poet, thinker, or theme is most welcome. An example is a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation essay on solitude and the Auistrian poet Rilke, titled “‘Live the questions now’: Reading Rilke in a time of uncertainty, grief and solitude.”
The essay pursues poets, writers, solitaries, and suffering people, following the course of solitude in their lives and the balm of discovering Rilke and the theme of giving oneself “permission for solitude.”
Read or listen to the near-hour program.