THURMAN’S CORNER – 6/06/21

A Sense of Self

In solitariness, a person is often most profoundly aware of the underlying unity of life for it carries with it, often, a dimension of sensitiveness to life, and awareness of others well nigh unique. But the matter of loneliness is a different story. Loneliness means that the individual feels he is in isolation from his fellows, cut off, stranded! The experience usually takes the form of not being understood. When the Book says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” it is an insistence that, if the individual has the profound consciousness that God understands him, then this is the ultimate sense of unity beside which all the understanding of others, however reassuring, may seem of little consequence. The possible peril is that of self-deception. There cannot be any substitute for simple sincerity and searching honesty.

From his book “Deep Is The Hunger”