The Loner

In every circle, there is a fringe. In that fringe, there will always be somebody. He/she will be in that group, and yet not there. They will join in the conversation, and yet really not participate in it. And if they do, they will put forward some strange ideas which make people uncomfortable. You will often find them sitting alone. They are at ease with themselves, but not quite at ease with the world. They are not alone, or lonesome. They are certainly not  lonely. They are the loners.

Maybe it is the background they come from. They probably had long periods of being alone, where they developed their brand of thinking. They dealt with themselves, looked inwards--really deep inside--and settled on being themselves. They were obviously moulded by their parents, relatives, schools, colleges and companions. But more often than not--they moulded themselves. Edit, cut, copy, paste, insert.....

(Hillary)

Who then is a loner??

"This subculture that will never, by nature, join hands and whose voices will never, by nature, form a chorus. Some loners are neuroscientists and some are office cleaners. Some are sculptors and some are Survivor fans. Some are law students and some are surfers. No two loners are alike, but all of us have one thing in common: we like to be alone. We like it. Everyone else - nonloners, that is — can't stand to be alone. They squirm. They feel ashamed. They yearn for company when they're alone. They're bored and don't know what to do. They're lonely.
We're not.

Mainstream culture loves nonloners. Joiners, schmoozers, teamworkers, congregants and all those who play well with others scoop up the rewards.
Meanwhile, loners get dissed. All the time. At school, at work, at church or temple, in movies, loners are misunderstood, misjudged, loathed, pitied and feared".

This is from a book by Annelie Rufus called ,appropriately, "Party of One".

Sometimes there is a loner in the midst of plenty--flamboyant, exotic, sought after--and yet the loner. Listen to this song by Peter Sarstedt who never again could match this performance.

Peter Sarstedt - W...

And sometimes, there is a backpacker, an isolated sketcher, a rock climber or a simple parkbench sitter. This is the person Nillsson sang about. I loved Nillsson's singing. He lost the sharpness with age, and then he died relatively young--but he sang of things we thought about but could never quite articulate.

Nilsson - Everybod...

Probably many of us are loners too...........