Cascade Courier - Your trusted local news source since 1910

There are words which are used as if they mean the same thing but are, in reality, vastly different. Two words which are often used interchangeably are “alone” and “lonely”. They occupy similar emotional spheres but, like railroad tracks that run along side each other but never ever meet, they are forever separate.

I saw a short clip recently about Michael Collins. He was the pilot of the Apollo 11 spacecraft. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went to the surface of the moon, Collins continued to orbit. Each time his craft went behind the moon he was completely cut off from communication with all humanity for 48 minutes at a time. It was described as the most alone any human has ever been.

As I thought about it, I thought I remembered Collins as being described as the loneliest human being ever. I had to go back and watch it again to get it right. It’s easy to confuse the two terms.

I wonder if Collins even thought about loneliness as all communication ceased for those 48 minutes each orbit. I knew one Apollo astronaut fairly well and, if Collins was of similar temperament, he likely didn’t give it even a moment’s thought. An astronaut, in my experience, is utterly mission oriented and largely unemotional. In even the direst of circumstances, astronauts must continue to go through their checklist of correct responses they must consider.

Folks who are more attuned to the emotional side of life were, perhaps, best represented by William Shatner, the actor, who was a passenger on the Blue Origin capsule which made a brief journey into space. Afterwards, Shatner wrote in his book Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, that he was filled with emotion by the experience. He said, he expected to feel a connection with the universe, a celebration. Instead, Shatner said it felt like a funeral. The connection he felt was not with, as he put it, the “vicious coldness of space” but with the “warm, nurturing” reality of Earth. While others celebrated with champagne, Shatner reported he felt an immense sadness. He reflected on the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna, that took five billion years to evolve only to be destroyed by humanity.

The wonder and beauty of life is not, at least not yet, to be found in the infinite reaches of the universe, it is right here, right here with you and me and all of Earth’s Creation. Right here.

The most needed and most sadly lacking human emotion is empathy, the capacity to understand and share the feelings of others, of connectedness with all of life, life right here. Loneliness is not lack of contact, it is the lack of connectedness. The mere presence of others does not dispel loneliness, only a deeper connection can accomplish that.

No amount of material success or fame can ever begin to replace the soul deep joy of realizing the true connectedness that transcends individuality.