XXIV.

Like with so many other things, loneliness arises in the tension-space between two forces driving in opposite directions. Loneliness is not simply being alone, wishing not to be so; it is to have simultaneously contempt for the company of others and the company of self. Therefore there are no obvious roads out of loneliness. S/he who is alone is so because s/he desires to be so - but in the essence of that very desire lies its opposition, the possibility of its annulment...scratching from below like a caged beast gone insane with hunger.
The feeling of loneliness o'erwhelms exactly because it is a catch 22. In fact, it is not a question of feeling oneself drawn towards either solitude or company - that would in a sense be a positive move. Rather, it is the question of being pushed away from both poles with the force of a hurricane. You hate both sides with equal power, thus dangling in between them, like a dancing puppet. The more force is exerted from one side, the more will be applied from the other. Loneliness is the perfect example of the perfect equilibrium. This is the real prison; perfect because it requires neither guards nor walls.
Under pressure from all sides, this coal-black feeling eventually turns into a diamond: Beautiful and Unbreakable.