The Goodness of Loneliness

But I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy; and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most severe evil. I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy; if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejection. I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that poor medium for the communication of feeling. I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me; whose eyes could reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend. I have no one near me, gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or ammend my plans. How would such a friend repair the faults of your poor brother!

The above excerpt is taken from Second Letter of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It is interesting to note that loneliness haunts everyone. I know for a fact that it haunts me and has done so from the start. According to Lewis once we are "fully conscious" we discover we are alone. It is no new thing to be alone. Or rather, should I say, feel alone? After all, I am not alone, I simply feel that way. God is always with me. People are often around me. Still I do feel alone. With God and even with others. I long for that ideal companion, a friend, who will take me out of my papers. The writer of the letter is, like myself, grateful for this medium of escape. To be able to share partially, sometimes even eloquently, with a blank page is a wonderful sensation. Yet it is not the same thing. This hunger, loneliness is, after all, a gnawing hunger, must be, according to some, a God given thing. Maybe. I honestly don't know. Sometimes I think it is, but sometimes it is so painful I'm no longer sure. I mean, yeah, I do believe that God uses it to draw us back to His side. I also believe that He takes advantage of it, but it is not a good thing, right? I mean, at the same time it was in the Garden. Adam sensed loneliness before being presented with Eve. God must have allowed that and I'm sure He would not allow evil into the Garden, therefore loneliness must be, though painful, a good thing.