O Solitude

I was reading a silly article about women sexuality earlier today, it was describing the life of women by decades and different sexual problems and experiences they are supposed to have. I found it really depressing, the way that all women, according to the article, are supposed to spend their early twenties having a lot of sex, then getting married, having kids, raising kids, rediscovering themselves once the kids are out of the house, getting old and dying. There was no reference to divorce, having an affair, choosing not to marry or have kids, having more then one significant relationship, or anything like that.

I'm trying to find a way to experience myself as an individual and as a part of a couple at the same time, and not forget that I'm my own person even though I'm also someone else's.

A couple of years ago, a friend introduced me to the work of Henry Purcell, an English composer from the 1500's, my favorite work that I know of his is the Lieder O solitude. Aside of the beautiful music, I really like the idea of writing a love poem to the notion of being by yourself and contemplating, feeling and thinking on your own. I think it's probably even more relevant today then back then.

O Solitude

 O solitude, my sweetest choice!
Places devoted to the night,
Remote from tumult and from noise,
How ye my restless thoughts delight!
O solitude, my sweetest choice!
O heav'ns! what content is mine
To see these trees, which have appear'd
From the nativity of time,
And which all ages have rever'd,
To look today as fresh and green
As when their beauties first were seen.
O, how agreeable a sight
These hanging mountains do appear,
Which th' unhappy would invite
To finish all their sorrows here,
When their hard fate makes them endure
Such woes as only death can cure.
O, how I solitude adore!
That element of noblest wit,
Where I have learnt Apollo's lore,
Without the pains to study it.
For thy sake I in love am grown
With what thy fancy does pursue;
But when I think upon my own,
I hate it for that reason too,
Because it needs must hinder me
From seeing and from serving thee.
O solitude, O how I solitude adore!