Opus 2011-318, A Good Word for Loners

Why does everyone tell me I need to share my feelings more?  I don’t want to share my feelings.  I get bored when you share yours.  It is not that I don’t care.  It is just that I don’t care.  I tend to be an introvert.  I had a pastor share once that an introvert gained energy from solitude and was drained by being with others.  An extrovert would be charged up by being in a group and bored by himself.  I doubt if it was original to him but it has a good point.

Alister Begg once commented on how everyone has times when they want to share something with their father, even after he had died.  I have not had that experience.  I had a lot of love and still have great respect for my father.  He raised four boys who all walked the straight path.  But he was my father, not by buddy.  When I worked with him on a daily basis we could go all day without saying much.  It was not our style.  I have never been someone who has to call and hear someone’s voice.  I am a loner, not a pack animal.

Perhaps bears and wolves would be a good comparison.  Bears are loners and do their own thing.  They raise their family but don’t run with others.  They don’t have a pecking order unless you want to call claiming a specific range as a pecking order. 

Wolves are pack animals.  They have a pecking order.  Maybe a growling order would be a better term.  They know who is top dog.  If they are like dogs they will sleep in a pile. 

There is another characteristic of pack animals.  In people it is sinister.  The leader of the pack tends to be a dictator.  The others are okay with that.  In humans I think that they tend to think that everyone thinks the way they do.  If they don’t they should.  As a result they are more into control and forcing conformity.  People who are loners tend to make more allowance for others having different opinions.  This idea could simply be me trying to make us loners superior, so feel free to do your own thinking and application.

Bears just want to be left alone.  They are capable of duty and responsibility.  They raise their young and are most dangerous when they are with their young (their time of being pack animals).  Then they move on.

Bears and wolves are animals.  They were not created in the image of God so we need to be careful when making comparisons.  But we can see parallels.  Both approaches are normal within reasonable bounds. 

Are you a soloist (a loner) or a member of the orchestra?  What is your style.  Don’t let others force you into their mold.  There is a place for both.

homo unius libri