I believe loneliness is an undeniable, inescapable, unforgettable, and most importantly, unsolvable fact. At least in our current era with our current knowledge. The idea that from the outside, people seem not to be alone or have solved this issue is more of a big lie than reality.

It’s like someone losing a loved one. The series of ceremonies and their hassles often serve more to distract the person than to provide any real comfort. They’re meant to keep you from having the chance to process that loss. The third, seventh, fortieth days, Thursdays, anniversaries, basically any moment when reflection is likely, is filled with ceremonies, taking away the time to think and grieve.

Or like getting married, which in our society consumes your time and thoughts, making you busy from morning to night, day and night, with matters you wouldn’t even have considered before.

We build walls of speed to avoid deeper, bigger questions. We keep ourselves busy with distractions and tasks so we don’t ask: Am I healthy and happy? Are my children growing up properly? Are politicians making good decisions on my behalf? Another reason, and in my opinion the most important one, for the difficulty in slowing down is the cultural taboo we’ve built against it. In our culture, "slow" is a dirty word, synonymous with lazy, shirking, someone retreating from their goals, like "he is a bit slow", and synonymous with foolishness.
- Carl Honoré, journalist and author of In Praise of Slow