Celebrating Loneliness

Human life begins with the turmoil of loneliness. Each of us is left with an empty, lonely space. Shouting loudly every second, but only a vague thought could be heard. A kind of hum of the call to prayer from a nearby mosque that keeps inviting us together with nostalgic songs sung in an orchestra.

Loneliness is a mutter that never stops calling us. Although reluctant to answer the call, he will approach himself. At the most unexpected times, we never want. But no matter how hard we resist it, the muttering becomes unstoppable. As soon as it came it immediately rocked the feeling.

So that's why we don't need to reject loneliness. Because every loneliness is to be celebrated, which is sometimes festive, sometimes simple.

We remember the tracts of the world's first humans. God created Adam from the earth on deserted earth which would later become his place of exile. He was given the opportunity to experience how beautiful heaven is. But still feeling empty, what does it all mean when he is still alone, foreign, and lonely in pleasure.

In that most beautiful place, Adam continued to imagine other creatures like him who would fill the emptiness of his day and the emptiness of his heart. When he slept under a tree, God took Adam's rib as material for the creation of a new man. When he woke up he was shocked, his face radiant, his eyes sparkling when he found a woman standing in front of him. The man is no longer alone. With Eve, he spent the day exploring the intricacies of the beauty of heaven and was always curious about what was in it.

Until one day came when they ate the forbidden fruit because they could not avoid the devil's seduction. And every action has a consequence that must be borne. They were sentenced to be expelled from heaven to inhabit foreign places that were never previously inhabited by humans.

The earth is also very large if it only contains them. The new humans will create a lively and cheerful atmosphere. However, since Adam and Eve became inhabitants of the earth, until far into the future centuries, until now to our lives, the earth still feels very large.

Perhaps since the first time humans were created and born, humans were destined to live in loneliness. Loneliness is like a shadow behind us and continues to follow our steps. We will never be free from the shackles of loneliness. Even though he thinks of him as a frightening ghost and should be avoided, humans should be familiar with loneliness.

Nietzsche, the famous philosopher of existentialism, lives life in a storm of loneliness. I was so familiar that he even once said, "Loneliness is my home." The house here is not just a building to protect from heat and rain. Not a place to store and hoard valuables, materials, and wealth. Nor is it only limited to resting when tired from every activity undertaken.

The house has become a separate icon for human life. The place where we come from and where our soul is always attached to life in it. A place to spend time and enjoy the rest of your life. The only place in the world that we most expect to return to despite the thousands of places we have visited. Home is the only place that tempts our feet to step home after running long distances down the glittering hallway of life.

Nietzsche is indeed a superman, but he cannot overcome the loneliness that grips him. Maybe it's because he became moody and temperamental. It's always more fun to be alone, away from the crowd and the crowd. Not only physically, but also aloof in thought that distinguished him from his predecessor philosophers.

In the lonely turmoil, Nietzsche still shows his existence. He realized that his other self who was truly free was a rational being. Loneliness is not pain and adversity. It is precisely from there that the echoes of which his thinking rocked modern-century Europe began. From his struggle with loneliness, he created a phenomenal work entitled The Spake Zarathustra (Word of Zarathustra) which immediately made the world turbulent because he revealed that God was dead.

In this postmodern era, amidst advances in science and technology, at a time when all humans can meet and greet through cyberspace, loneliness still creeps up the walls of the human soul. We may have thousands of friends who are connected all the time. But the single most loyal and lasting friend is loneliness. He is always there when other friends leave us.

Loneliness is not solitude. Crowds do save us from being alone, but they don't necessarily get rid of loneliness. People who are in a crowded place, in a frenetic atmosphere, will still feel lonely if a void clings to them. Meanwhile, people who are alone can get rid of their loneliness because they present something alive to get rid of that loneliness. Because loneliness is at home in the soul, invisible, without physical size, free to come and go according to the condition of each soul.

Loneliness can help us think clearly. This condition leads humans to be able to recognize themselves, recognize the environment, and recognize the Supreme figure. The contemplation of world civilization is born in lonely places. The struggle with loneliness gives birth to life dynamics and becomes a milestone for change in every age.

In history, there are recorded great people who were born out of struggles with loneliness. Strangers are just imaginations about ourselves unable to celebrate loneliness. The most influential figure in the world, Muhammad before becoming an apostle spent his time wrestling quietly in the Hira Cave until he got a sacred assignment from Him. Soekarno underwent exile many times in various quiet places to reflect on the fate of a nation that was full of pain and succeeded in freeing this nation from the grip of colonial demons.

We are cursed creatures who have inherited Adam's loneliness. In this increasingly noisy world, we find ourselves the loneliest of all. The internet and social media are tools that try to get rid of loneliness, but inside we are moaning and calling. The thousands of incoming messages and information every second accumulated on the device still send us into a wave of loneliness that is so real.

Millions of people seem happy with all the images he presents in the virtual world. The spices of beauty and beauty that arise from physical things cause momentary pleasure. For a moment it works to make us feel like people who are noticed by many people. But loneliness still can't move. Instead, it drags us more and more into the void, which keeps us in virtual happiness and real loneliness.

"If you do not love loneliness, you do not love freedom," Arthur Schopenhauer's words were not raising the self of lonely people. Basically, loneliness should be loved as much as we love freedom. Those of us who feel bad about our own loneliness has never loved our human nature of freedom. Because in loneliness we become free humans, free to express all things. Forget the fear of loneliness' poetry, that we will not die even if we are lonely. Let's celebrate our loneliness.