David Hutto

Solitary Confinement

The fact that we have the word “isolation” (which really indicates that we have such a concept) is a commentary on two aspects of our existence, against both of which we rebel.

Most profoundly, in our awareness of ourselves, we have a sense of existing somehow “inside” the body. All of our experiences and feelings lead us to believe in a self that is in there somewhere. At different times and places, the focus of that existence has been seen as the stomach, the heart, or the brain. For us, it’s the brain, so that we have science fiction tales about isolated brains in jars that can still communicate as a “person”.

The bodies that we inhabit are made of the earth, the very thing you can scoop up in handfuls. It’s a mystically ingenious system, yet eventually it all falls apart, and there you go. Dust to dust. Metaphorically (or perhaps not metaphorically at all) we say that our spirit or soul is trapped inside the flesh. The soul can move the facial muscles and make expressions or the hands to paint or write. It can move the mouth to speak. In doing these kinds of things, the soul is saying, sometimes screaming, “I’m in here!”

Inherently, the soul is cut off from other souls by the ridiculous fact of being trapped inside a creation of matter. Being thus separated relates to the second aspect of our existence that is alluded to with the word “isolation”. It is our nature to want to be connected to other souls, even as they are shut out by the very fact of our existence. It is as if we are all being punished with solitary confinement. We can see here the origin of the Christian idea that we are in fact being punished, or the Hindu notion that if you are good enough, you can stop being reborn and escape from here.

As to why we want to connect with other souls, neither truckloads of philosophers nor chatrooms of psychologists could really say, other than to refer us back to ourselves. It’s just how our grinning creator made us.

When we use the word “isolation” we are in effect objecting to basic aspects of being in this world, that we are lost in the cave of the body and wishing someone could hear us.