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Caption: Seeking Solitude An excursion into the Self
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Caption: Believing that loneliness is marked by a sense of isolation but that solitude, conversely, is a state of being alone without being lonely and can lead to self-awareness,
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Caption: I fled the concrete megapolis of Phoenix, Arizona to spend 27 days living alone and wireless inside this small shack outside of Townsend, Montana.
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Caption: Through this silent shack's bird smeared windows I saw beauty. Through its single door: light.
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Caption: Canyon Ferry Lake was a half hour's walk north from my shack. The Big Belt and the Elkhorn Mountains a bit of a longer southern walk.
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Caption: The shack sat 3,800 feet above sea level and was located 35 miles east of Helena, where the Missouri River, the longest river in North America begins.
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Caption: Of great comfort was the daylight sight and the nighttime sounds of the freight trains chugging east to west and west to east between Townsend, population 1,758, and Seattle, population, 642,001.
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Caption: These trains inspired my nocturnal dreams,
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Caption: and the self-awareness of my on-rushing inevitable mortality. I learned that whereas loneliness is a sickness of the Self, solitude is a celebration of the Self.
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Caption: Thanks for viewing, perhaps even reading, this tale of
self-indulgence.
rhilleboe@mac.com
#Montana, #Townsend, #Solitude, #Iconoclast00