out from the crowd and delights in their  particularity. But let's also admit to how  

frankly lonely and frightening it can be to find  ourselves (yet again) in a peculiar minority,  

where the differences between us and others  strike us as bewildering rather than emboldening,  

when for example:

Everyone wants to gossip but we  prefer generosity and forgiveness.

Everyone is at ease but we're  melancholy and self-conscious.

Everyone is cheerful but we can't  let go of anxiety and apprehension.

Everyone is confident but we feel  suspicious and ashamed of ourselves.

Everyone seems contented in their couples  but we are still searching for a home.

Everyone worries passionately about the future  

of the planet - but we feel cold  and at times almost indifferent.

Everyone seems to love life,  but we're not sure we quite do.

At such times, we might benefit from a  few thoughts to alleviate the isolation:

We don’t know reality as well as we  imagine. What we believe 'everyone'  

is like may not be how they really are.  We may have more friends than we think.

We are getting statistics wrong: these  four or eight or twelve people in a room  

don’t represent all of humanity. The  80 or so people in our social group  

are a miniscule part of the story. There  are still so many friends left to meet.

Perhaps our existing companions actually know  much more about the material we feel alone  

with than we suspect; they, and we, simply  haven't found a way to share our selves.

Maybe they will feel what we  feel one day - just not yet.

It may be fine to belong to a minority.  Minorities have sheltered some of the  

most accomplished spirits. Isolation may be a  price we pay for a certain complexity of mind.

We have art to bridge the gaps  between ourselves and others.  

Bookshops are an ideal destination for the lonely,  

given how many books were written because  their authors couldn't find anyone to talk to.

Maybe there are people nearby - perhaps in this  community - who would understand very well indeed.