What is the longest amount of time you've spent in complete solitude?
By “complete”, I mean with absolutely no interaction with another human being in any way. No phone calls, text messages, emails, visits, internet, etc.
Why were you alone? Camping, on a journey of enlightenment, depression? How did being alone for that period of time make you feel?
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Four days on a backpacking trip in the smokies. It’s rare that you do not cross paths with at least one person but I stayed in one spot. Other than that a few weekends where I did not leave the house. Solitude is refreshing but makes you appreciate the company of others.
Probably never. I’ve been home for days at a time, sick, (very rare but maybe three times in my adult life) and still, with phone, cable, internet.
About 30 days at sea and gunk-holing around various uninhabited islands among the Raggedies in the southern Bahama chain. I had swimming pigs for company. They would swim from one island to another when the foraging got poor. They also ate fish—sometimes right off my own line! Freaked me out the first time I saw one. Bumped right into the side of my boat to get my attention and beg for scraps. Thought I may have been out alone too long for a second there.
I enjoy being out alone. This time I had a cat along, though. Buddy. Well, Bud Lite after I had him neutered. Cats don’t take up too much space, keep to themselves, eat fish which are free for the taking and plentiful down here and they are an excellent early warning system for storms and trespassers once you know how to read them. They are also very sure-footed which is a plus on a sailboat—especially when you hate water as much as cats do.
@Espiritus_Corvus Thank you for sharing that. That’s one of my favorite answers that I’ve seen on Fluther in quite a while. It’s exactly the type of thing I was looking for when I asked this, but not only that, something about the way you wrote it really made it all very easy for me to imagine and I was able to appreciate it that much more. GA
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