Impossible, i realize, to enter another's solitude. If it is true that we can ever come to know another human being, even to a small degree, it is only to the extent that he is willing to make himself known. A man will say: I am cold. Or else he will say nothing, and we will see him shivering. Either way, we will know that he is cold. But what of the man who says nothing and does not shiver?
Where all is intractable, where all is hermetic and evasive, one can do no more than observe.

Ballerina Cat

I grew up out of that strange, dreamy childhood of mine and went into the world of reality. I met with experiences that bruised my spirit - but they never harmed my ideal world. That was always mine to retreat into at will. I learned that that world and the real world clashed hopelessly and irreconcilably; and I learned to keep them apart so that the former might remain for me unspoiled.
I learned to meet other people on their own ground since there seemed to be no meeting place on mine. I learned to hide the thoughts and dreams and fancies that had no place in the strife and clash of the market place. I found that it was useless to look for kindred souls in the multitude; one might stumble on such here and there, but as a rule it seemed to me that the majority of people lived for the things of time and sense alone and could not understand my other life. So I piped and danced to other people's piping - and held fast to my own soul as best I could.

The Lake of Love - Weeping
Willow, circa 1918.
Painted by French artist Marie-Joseph-Léon Clavel.

Your views and beliefs are ways of bringing the universe down to the finite where you can feel a sense of control. Since your mind cannot handle the infinite, you created an alternate reality of finite thoughts that can remain fixed within your mind. This model becomes your reality. If anything happens that challenges how you view things, you fight. You defend. You rationalize.
- Michael Singer