Can we talk about something else?

Can we talk about something else? The The Hello. Hello?

Out there. Lonesomeness. It's a feeling or a state that means more than just being lonely. It's at least to some degree about being

unrelatable, about holding concerns and worries and hopes and dreams that as far

as you can tell nobody else does. It's about seeing those around you who are so easily

satiated by things like money, a house, a family, a bowl of popcorn and a football game,

as simpletons. Many of us are deep in debt, so every thought of our day is

tainted by that concern. Every good feeling popped before it can swell. And the debt is a shameful thing, so we can't talk about it much.

We'll claim to be depressed, and we are, but it's not just a cruel joke of nature,

a chemical imbalance that has us down. It's the shackles of our debt and the worst

of it is that the only time we feel up is when we're digging deeper into it, embracing

it, laughing at it, until morning, when we wake with it wrapped around our

soul and spend the day imagining ways to not feel its death grip cinch tighter. It's lonely to be in debt. Our debts are more than just

financial. They are our failure to improve on our shortcomings, learn from our

sins of the past. Anything that we hang on to, procrastinate about

moving on from and making as right as we can.

I'm reminded of the advice Seinfeld gave Kramer, not on the show but later after Kramer went off script.

Jerry advised Cosmo that if he was truly remorseful, then all that there was left to do was put down the bag and walk away.

But that's the problem.

Most of us aren't carrying baggage that we have the guts to unpack and put away properly.

We believe we've been saddled with the guilt, unjustifiably

punished with our cumbersome load. Guilt is nature's way of telling us we need to make adjustments.

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