Alone

I grew up alone.  I live alone.  Yet I am involved to the hilt in a wonderful family that has a passion for Life that is unequalled by any around us.

Let me explain.

By 16 years of age, I had lived in 32 homes, and gone to 16 different schools, in 6 different countries.

In the military I was one of 120 in my class, but I was alone.

When I was posted to an active role, I was amongst hundreds of professionals, some of the most skilled people on the planet, yet I was, again, alone.

When I was moved to a floating city, with over 5,000 people on it, I had one hundred and ten brothers-in-arms, sworn to have my back, but I was alone.

A decade later, having moved through the world again, this time in the world of academia and learning, in spite of trying my hardest, in every job, work place, university, or hospital, I was alone.

Another decade past, more schools, more jobs, more people, yet I was alone in every dimension you care to measure.

Three decades later, and as I sit here and write this, I wonder about an old proverb I read some time ago.

“Though I have travelled the world, and given all that I have, to everyone I meet, at every corner, and in every shadow, I am as a stick in the pond, floating alone at the whim of the tide and the wind.  I have adopted many, yet no one has even adopted me.  Perhaps that is the real question.”

Perhaps it is.