Crash Test Dummies

Why do people believe that living alone is the best of all worlds? Yeah, so okay, sometimes no distractions paired with the freedom to think, play, and sleep at will is a cozy little place called Dreamville.
 
But when Murphy’s Law meets the Law of Averages, Dreamville becomes Amity Island. And big ass sharks are the least of your worries.
 
Okay, so I have a knack for overexaggerating. But I have lived that dreamy little nightmare for years now and the highs and lows are hardly an even split.
 
When there is no one to please or motivate it is ridiculously easy to do nothing. Who cares if I run the vacuum today? No one knows but me. And those dirty dishes in the sink? They can wait until . . . who cares?
 
That might sound unbelievably tempting, but procrastinating today's needs bleeds uncontrollably into all aspects of your life. Trust me. I am an expert.
 
Dining on chocolate for breakfast, popcorn for lunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch for dinner (half a box as a finger-food snack) sounds delicious, right? It is until your blood sugar drops to the neglectful idiot stage and your energy level resembles an overfed pig.
 
With no kids of my own, no grandkids wanting to bake cookies with Grandma, and next to zero chance of a surprise knock on my door, it is too easy to become self-indulgent on whims without consequence.

​And boy, does it ever play havoc with emotions. We often forget that intimacy is more than a romp in the sack.
 
Companionship has always been paramount to personal fulfillment. The phrase “no man is an island” originated 400 years ago by English metaphysical poet John Donne. As the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, it is said he penned those thoughts while alone on a grim Christmas Eve amid a deadly pandemic.
 
Even Aristotle once said, “Man is a social animal. He who lives without society is either a beast or God.”
 
I am a far cry from anti-social, and God knows I am not a beast, but lack of interaction with the masses sometimes toys with my ability to evaluate situational intent. Seriously. I can over or under-react in the blink of an eye. Isolation dilutes emotional aptitude and so in public, we become bulls in China shops.
 
Have you ever noticed that fish float aimlessly in an aquarium and never crash into anything? Humans are seldom that perceptive and solitude disrupts anything resembling that kind of radar. We really are more like crash test dummies than conscientious observers. Why?
 
Because social skills are not inherent. They are learned through communal experience and will falter equally as fast without human contact. Without sharing all of life’s little quirks with someone special, life takes on a completely different landscape.
 
Life as a single woman – I love it; I hate it; It is exhilarating and debilitating. Be thankful I didn’t pontificate on the subject of boredom. Ah, but that is fodder for yet another rant.
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