COVID-19 pandemic offers us a chance to restore balance in isolation

Much has been said and written about negative impacts resulting from our current shelter in place program due to COVID-19. While the many inconveniences relating to being a prisoner in one’s own home without normal, ongoing person-to-person socialization with friends, neighbors and loved ones head the list, other consequences merit attention.

Specifically, the affects of prolonged loneliness and social isolation, two related but very different conditions.

Loneliness is not the same as social isolation. Some of us can be alone without being lonely, others can be surrounded by other people, yet still experience loneliness. We all know people who prefer being by themselves, feeling that they are their own best company.

While social isolation, the absence of social contact, can lead to feelings of loneliness and sadness, it can also result in bursts of creativity. Indeed, throughout history some of the most brilliant thinkers, artists and writers have embraced life in social isolation.

Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” written in 1854, has much to say on this subject. Himself something of a hermit, Thoreau’s American classic contains an essay entitled Solitude which suggests that a degree of separation from others is not only healthy and proper, but can be productive.

Shakespeare was no stranger to the task of plying his trade amid difficult conditions. While writing Romeo and Juliet in 1593-94, the bubonic plague was ravishing his world, the theaters were closed, and the great play was presumably written in isolation. There are numerous indirect references to the epidemic in this masterpiece, along with the more direct, famous line, “A plague on both your houses.”

When the bubonic plague re-surfaced in 1603, a particularly lethal outbreak that resulted in 30,000 city dwellers dead, Shakespeare wrote King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra, all three in isolation.

I envision Vincent Van Gogh painting feverishly, alone in his room in Arles. Emily Dickinson, isolated in Amherst, writing about “solitary prowess/of a Silent Life.”

In modern times, no one typifies greater creativity in isolation than the late Philip Roth, who died at 85 in 2016. The author of such notable novels as American Pastoral, The Human Stain and The Plot Against America, Roth lived most of his life alone, having experienced two short-term marriages that ended in divorce.

He once commented, “When I write, I’m alone.” Indeed, when approached by a man eager to write Roth’s biography, his response was, “There’s nothing to write about. I go into a room, sit in front of a typewriter all day long and work, then I go to bed. That’s it.”

Roth was the ultimate anti-Hemingway. No African safaris, deep sea fishing, fights in bars, or beautiful women for him. He simply worked hard and produced great novels, all in isolation.

Mexican poet and diplomat Octavio Paz wrote “Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.”

Whether in isolation one practices meditation, keeps a journal, spends time reflecting or engages in reading, writing or painting, or other pursuits, it’s a good way to restore balance, refuel, and add a new dimension to your life.