Alone or loneliness

 Don't you get lonely? I was asked. I thought about that for a minute, then said that, at one point in my life, I was never alone. There were friends with friends drinking and singing karaoke and day drinkers hiding from the light. There were wives and girlfriends, not at the same time, that always had an agenda for things I was expected to do. Meet so-and-so for brunch, meet up with friends for a picnic, or a car full of kids headed for the beach. Decades passed, and I only experienced being lonely when someone dear to me found peace, bringing me closer to being alone but not lonely. I grew tired of crowds that seemed to choke the life out of me and the canned laughter my ears became deaf to. I found that by searching my memories, I could go back in time, choose where and who I wanted to be, and brush aside what held no meaning for me. The truth is, I didn't find peace until I was in my seventies, when I no longer needed alarm clocks or deadlines. When I quit drinking, I never heard from my fellow drinkers anymore, reading the obituaries daily to see who had passed on and taking a moment of silence to wish them a safe journey to the big bottle of whiskey in the sky.

Do I get lonely? Sure I do, but it passes quickly as I reach into my past and relive times that were, for the most part, happy and filled with love of many kinds. For some reason, unknown to me, I was given the gift of memories, which I decided would make for a good book if I could find a way to write, even though I'd never put pen to paper for any other reason than to see my words woven into sentences. Then the unexpected happened, and I found myself far from lonely as my words spoke to me, and any hint of loneliness vanished altogether. Writing became my friend, my editor, my peace of mind in a troubled world. It helped me find those bar buddies again, as I gave them places in my writing. As time went on, hundreds of people I once knew found themselves planted among others who had left their mark in my mind and heart, finding a place in my words.
So no, I don't ever find myself being lonely because I can always come up with new players with their own identities for me to greet and write into a story. I've been asked what I do for fun, and that's an easy answer: I write every day. I sit down somewhere, maybe the porch or in my favorite chair with a cup of coffee, and I let my mind and my heart go to work. No need for business attire or clothes, for that matter, just my desktop and me tapping the first key to what I hope will be worth writing. My current blog has over one thousand short stories, all conceived by my gift of remembering and a touch of fiction to make things interesting. That my friends are my joy, my happiness, and my fun, knowing someplace out in the world someone is reading my work and relating to my stories written by a man who's alone but never lonely. 

Mike 2026                                                     

Mike 2026