We are Social Language Animals

We are Social Language Animals

Spooning Alone and Burning the Midnight Oil

Sophia: Gentlemen, I’ve been considering solitude. Colton, you wrote that meeting one’s own heart in quiet reflection is rarer—and perhaps braver—than facing an enemy in battle. How does one cultivate such courage?

Colton: Ah, Sophia, it is indeed an audacious act. To be alone with oneself, to confront all the half-formed fears and hidden desires, is a trial that few dare endure. Many prefer the battlefield or society’s noise, for it shields them from self-knowledge.

To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.
— Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)

Trollope: And yet, even in solitude, one must reckon with the timing of life’s fortunes. Success, if it comes early, is often misfortune in disguise. Those who burn the midnight oil, labor quietly, and endure the slow climb gain wisdom alongside achievement.

Sophia: So, solitude is not simply idleness, but a disciplined encounter with one’s own character—an ongoing labor as exacting as any public struggle?

Colton: Precisely. To spoon alone with one’s thoughts is to brave the fiercest adversary: the unexamined self. Courage is required not for outward conquest, but inward mastery.

Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.
— Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)

Trollope: And mastery, Sophia, is rarely sudden. Life rewards patience and persistent toil. Those who leap too quickly into triumph may find it hollow. True success is often the companion of well-tended solitude and steady effort.

Sophia: It seems, then, that the night hours, spent alone in reflection, are both crucible and blessing—a time when courage and endurance shape the self for what is to come.

Colton: Indeed. The heart confronted in the closet emerges stronger, wiser, and prepared for whatever public trials may follow.

Trollope: And, in that quiet preparation, one learns that early success may tempt but slow perseverance endures. Solitude and diligence together forge both character and destiny.

Sophia: Then, to dare to spoon alone and burn the midnight oil is to embrace the rarest courage and the most patient path to fulfillment.

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“I see!” said Homer

A deluded entry into Homer starkly contrasts the battles and hero-worship that united our Western sensibilities and the only psychology that we no? Negation is what I often refer to as differentiation within and through the individual’s drive to individuate.

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