Productive Aloneness
Dear [Mentat],
Yes, reading Maslow and some philosophical works has softened my view on [my belief that a man's life is doomed if he spends it alone]. After all, many philosophers live life alone. They accomplish much. But so many of them seem to write with a decidedly melancholy tone. I wonder if that’s because they had no lovers. On the other hand, people like Voltaire had many women and his work reads as more upbeat and optimistic than someone like Spinoza or Schopenhauer, who lived as virtual hermits during their peak writing years.
At any rate, I try these days to read about arguments that oppose mine. So you’ll probably notice a progressively more understanding (if not accepting) tone in my writings as we discuss at length various topics upon which we disagree.
Well, even if you were the only one to ever attempt to live a highly productive, happy life without a lover, that shouldn’t put you off because human history is chalk full of firsts. Everything we routinely do today was at one time done for the first time by somebody, and that somebody was probably faced with a similar dilemma. He had to have a bit of blind faith.
There is something to be said for blind faith, although I must admit I’ve never been good at accepting, as true, a belief I couldn’t verify, or that seemed rationally untrue. So I probably wouldn’t make a good inventor or innovator in general.
Of course, you’re right that many have lived highly successful lives as confirmed bachelors. So you wouldn’t be blazing a brand new path, which is probably a good thing.
