> Apparently, all it took for me to become aware of the emptiness of life and the horror of existence was to be deprived of human company for a few hours > Wha

> Apparently, all it took for me to become aware of the emptiness of life and the horror of existence was to be deprived of human company for a few hours > What had been missing was some halfway secure sense of my own identity, a sense achieved in solitude by putting first-person words on a page For anyone looking to understand themselves, I'd recommend backpacking alone. There's a certain sense of self-certainty that solitude brings that this author clearly has identified. So much of modern society is based on the same architectural principle perfected by tipis - relationships and institutions all canceling out forces that would pin us to the ground. I don't regret this being my primary experience, but I would regret not knowing that I can also stand alone - at least for a short time.