On solitude

 ”Solitude stands by the window. She turns her head as I walk in the room” - Susanne Vega

The hotel room when travelling alone may well have solitude standing in the corner or by the window. She is always there during off season when hotels are empty, usually busy streets are eerie, cafes and restaurants have signs telling “closed due to holidays”. World famous sights are for private enjoyment - I have stood in the middle of empty St Mark’s square in Venice all alone with a few pigeons. Not once, but twice. She is there, to remind me of others, my loved ones. 

But solitude is necessarily bad. As long there are some cafes open, some people somewhere, music, one is not lonely. Loneliness cannot survive presence of others. And for that reason one must leave the hotel room also on rainy days, with an umbrella in one hand and one’s bag over shoulder. 

And, in one’s room or in a cafe or on park bench, having a book brings others near. Books carry the whole humanity. Reading cures loneliness, prevents it. Maybe there is a bookstore somewhere close by. Or a library. 

And now, right at this moment, clouds are being dispersed by the sun. Loneliness does not survive sunlight any better than vampires. 

But, we should not listen to American music anymore. I am sure there would be something Italian as good as Sinatra.