By Careca
In ordinary dictionary meaning ‘solitude’ means ‘to seek isolation’ or ‘to be alone away from human activity’. It has long been recognized that solitude or seclusion has a significant salutary impact on health. In the sense that the ability to occasionally escape the hustle and bustle and the endless din inherent in modern society can improve one’s quality of life and perhaps add to life expectancy.
One of the more efficient inhibitors of good health, either physically or mentally, is the urge to be up and about like the bees and ants which are naturally wired to be perennial construction workers. In human society the ‘busy bee syndrome is overly glorified. Consequently, the system of thought of most societies consistently demonizes inactivity or solitude. Thus one finds such common sayings as the ‘idle mind is the devil’s workshop’; ‘procrastination is the thief of time’ extant and subsumed into the norms and mores of divergent cultures worldwide. Based upon this wide but negative perception of solitude the reflective individual who desires occasional solitude or a period of extended inactivity is subjected to an unending harangue of the consequences of shiftlessness.
In my home country, Nigeria, the busy beaver is almost deified. Thus the individual who is not regularly observed to be in a constant beaver mode of some sort is dismissed as an ‘NFA’ (No Future Ambition) and therefore liable to be a burden or a source of anguish for family and society. Indeed the urge to curb ‘inaction’ is pervasive across all strata of Nigerian life.
‘Don’t just sit about moping. Get something doing!’ parents would often scold indignantly.
‘Look my friend go and find something profitable to do. Get busy. Time is irreplaceable.” teachers are wont to endlessly warn.
‘Time is money!’ the society regularly upbraids the individual. In fact in the 1980s in Nigeria there was a popular radio jingle ‘Time Na Money O Time Na Money’. It was rendered in Nigeria’s Pidgin English.
Time na money o, Time na money
If you waste your time all looku
Money no dey come from heaven
Na through better thing money
Dey come, na true word I dey
Tell you so oya o!
But ‘why should we live with such hurry and waste of life’, inquires the nineteenth philosopher Henry David Thoreau trenchantly. For Thoreau, ‘we are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow’. However, the urge to ‘take a thousand stitches today in order to save the nine of tomorrow’ has resulted in the endless but avoidable considerable human traffic not only trudging in and out of our hospitals today but also laying, ironically, in everlasting solitude six feet under the earth’s crust.
Though the health benefits of solitude are now generally acknowledged the overwhelming societal expectation that one should be ‘busy’ or that human activity is virtue or bliss is paramount. Consequently, the urge to conform with this social mores usually possesses the individual to embark upon all sorts of hollow or inane activities. However such activities usually end with little or no rewards because they are often just intended for public display (or for show’ or to merely ‘satisfy appearances’ rather than for the attainment of any productive good. At their worst these mechanical activities result ultimately in the damage of physical and metal heath. Indeed such ‘busy’ periods could have been more profitably expended in seclusion no matter how brief. Seclusions, time spent alone, allows for critical introspection – review of thoughts and previous action and the relief of tension through the ventilation of emotional burdens; burdens which often translate into bodily ailments.
Philosopher T’ang as Confucius referred to him says ‘renew thyself completely each day; do it again and again and forever again’. The most appropriate medium for personal renewal as far as one can see is through solitude, not drugs or meditation. Meditation or reflection or musing can be done within view of the familiar. Besides meditation usually occurs for short bursts of time and are subject of interruption. Solitude on the other hand is complete evacuation from familiar environments for a specific period of time. The philosopher Henry David Thoreau when he acquired a piece of rustic real estate pointed out that ‘the real attractions of the Hollowell farm to me were its complete retirement, being about two miles from the village, half a mile from the nearest neighbour and separated from the high way by a broad field’. A typical seclusion may be for three or six hours or a day or two. It may be six months or even more as embarked upon by Thoreau. The period of solitude not withstanding if properly utilised we can tap into the rich vein of solitude which cause our bodily powers to be regenerated and replenished. In short the individual emerges from seclusion in a state of heightened mental consciousness and physical vigour.
Given the press of time and the demands of contemporary living, one may rightly question the possibility of attaining the same level of seclusion as attained by Thoreau in his Hollowell farm. To be sure, it may be difficult to find such level of solitude in modern urban centres due to the pressure of population. However, it is still possible to, ‘spend one day as deliberately as nature and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito wing that falls on the nails’ through outlets such as walking tours. For example within an urban conurbation one can easily embark on walking tours.
In actual fact, walking tours offer excellent therapeutic relief, more so when undertaken in solitude. According to Robert Stevenson, ‘if you go in a company or even in pairs it is no longer a walking tour in anything but name; it is something else and more in the nature of a picnic. A walking tour should be gone upon alone because freedom is of the essence; because you should be able to stop and go on and follow this way or that as the freak takes you…And then you must be open to all impressions and let your thoughts take colour from what you see’. The prospect of solitude through a walking tour is singularly enthralling. William Hazlilt (On Going on a Journey) says that, among other things, all he asks for on such a tour is ‘the clear blue sky over my head and the green turf (or is it black pavement now?) beneath my feet…three hours march to dinner…I laugh, I run, I leap, I sing for joy!’
In the realm of spirituality, Jesus Christ, through his actions, acquiesced in the fact that, ‘God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us’. It was for this reason that Christ repeatedly beseeched His followers to enter into communion with God only in solitude. He showed just such an example when he withdrew from his disciples to pray shortly before His crucifixion.
But now back to the secular. And perhaps nowhere is more favourable for the message of solitude than my home state of Lagos. Lagos is a city that never sleeps. It is a city where it is prideful to be up and about daily before the first light and extremely disdainful to be found indoors during daylight hours. Workers have been known to break down and weep bitterly when mandated to proceed on their annual leave. This is because there is a widespread belief in Lagos that insofar as you are ‘out there’ as busy as a beaver your break through is just around the corner. And conversely insofar as you are indoors you are never ever too far from poverty. These feelings help make Lagos what it is – a city perpetually on the boil. One perceives and sees the intensity everywhere, in traffic, in government offices, on the streets everywhere. Every Lagos dweller is thus inundated with an intensity (often spilling into aggression) but which, perhaps, a little solitude now and again could have easily dissipated.
In conclusion then, the occasional practice of solitude will go a long way towards the relief of mental and physical health and save the public health system the burden of avoidable ailments.
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