Therefore, my dear friend, I know of no other advice than this: Go within and scale the depths of your being from which your very life springs forth…For the creative artist must be a world of his own and must find everything within himself and in nature, to which he has betrothed himself.
– “The First Letter,” Rainer Maria Rilke
The creative person – artist, writer, musician, dancer – creates alone. She may have a collaborator or a dance partner, but, even when working with another, she is a world entire to herself. She is solitary.
She is not lonely; loneliness is not the same thing as “solitary” or “solitude.” Loneliness is the antithesis of solitude. Solitude has a sense of rightness and rest to it. It is a wellspring of contentment. Loneliness is not like that. It jabs and jeers and makes the artist miserable. Loneliness embitters and tarnishes. It turns the artist myopic and ego-centric rather than observant and empathetic.
Solitude, in contrast, rests upon an ability to be steadfast and strong no matter the external circumstances. It’s found in enjoying the quiet and times of reflection. It shifts objects and events and even people on their axes so that an ordinary marble becomes extraordinary if viewed in the right light. It is discovered in observing the world and the people in it and even in interacting and having relationships with those people.
Solitude allows everything that happens and is seen to become a source of nourishment for the artist’s soul and to serve as inspiration for the work. When she settles into that work, times, places, objects, and people arise in her heart and mind. They already have significance, but she imbues them with still more. The light slanting through the window highlights a cheekbone, a hand, a dust particle. A fly becomes a harbinger. The gesture she loves is recollected, reclaimed, and transformed.
Solitude allows for those metamorphoses but not loneliness. Loneliness cripples the artist. Solitude sets her free. It grants her entry to a world – her world – that is rich and teeming with life if she will but “scale the depths” of her own being.
Image: Peter Heilmann (Creative Commons)
Lovely post, Erin! I usually call it “Aloneness vs loneliness” – I really enjoy your use of “solitude”.
RebeccaTodd Thank you!
I guess I’ve been contemplating friendship, solitude (what you call “aloneness”), and loneliness the past few weeks. It’s starting to turn into words.