I'm still in my twenties, but I see this cross-generational "epidemic of loneliness" happening all around me and I wonder how it will play out on a grander scale.

The fact that we are openly talking about it -- about what it means to build a core community, to love deeply and platonically, to be lonely, and to need people in your life that you can be vulnerable, intellectual, authentic with -- gives me hope for a more honest, more human social future. I see our current American/Euro-western culture as a blip on the radar of human history. The level of isolation and rigid independence we see in our current societies is not at all normal or natural for our intensely gregarious species.

Perhaps we are all simply yearning to return to our natural state, the proverbial fire around which stories are told/made, faces are recognized, and selves are shared. I think that firelight is a wonderful space to occupy together. Thanks for sharing your beautiful vulnerability and lovely words!