Weekly Inspiration: Thoughts on Isolation

“Isolation is aloneness that feels forced upon you, like a punishment.  Solitude is aloneness you choose and embrace.  I think great things can come out of solitude, out of going to a place where all is quiet except the beating of your heart.”  Jeanne Marie Laskas

I write this on the first day of Governor Cooper’s stay-in-place order.  It’s really not much different than my previous days. I’ve been self-isolating since the end of January when I got sick. I was beginning to re-connect to the world when COVID-19 arrived. I didn’t want to get sick again, so I continued limiting my contact with others.  

As I said, today is not much different, except:

Now I’m forced to self-isolate by law: If I violate Cooper’s order, I could end up in jail for 60 days and be $1,000 poorer.

It’s not legal consequences that tweak my sense of self, but that choice is now taken from me. Jason Rezaian says, of course, it’s okay to feel angry—he was in 2014 while held in solitary confinement for eighteen months in Iran. He remarked that anger just doesn’t accomplish anything.  Okay.

So, instead I think about the word “Isolate.” Lexico.com defines it as: "Cause (a person or place) to be or remain alone or apart from others.” “Isolate” was first used in the early 1800’s and taken from the word “isolated”: “Far away from other places, buildings, or people; remote”

etymonline.com reports “isolated” is from the French isolé, which came through the Italian isolato, which came from late Latin insulatus ‘made into an island’, and from Latin “insula ‘island’”.

A relatively young English word then, and doesn’t have the rich history of ‘gather’ which has wandered through Germanic languages, possibly stemming from Proto-Indo-European roots.  It’s appropriate, isn’t it, that “isolate” travels were lonelier than ‘gather” travels?  I find that comforting. 

As I do, also, in the other meanings of ‘isolate’ (“Identify (something) and examine or deal with it separately.”) and ‘isolated’ (“Single; exceptional”)

Isn’t that what we strive to do as writers—identify something, look at it closely, separate out its parts, and then put it back together in a singular, exceptional way that entertains and maybe provokes?   

Rezaian says other things that relate to us as writers now, and really, at all times: use this time of enforced solitude to get to know ourselves better, to embrace the voice inside our heads and use it “as an advantage”, and probably most importantly, to trust ourselves.

If I may add, trust also our process in creating our work, our poetry and prose.   

You can find Rezaian talking about his experience as it relates to this era of COVID-19 and read a summary of his remarks here.

Carol Phillips