I have seen all kinds of faces from the stool. They come and go. How long they stay depends on their need to be here. Entertainment, digression, is transient. Fleeting. As is failure, rejection, the broken heart. These are temporary states of being, and therefore momentary needs to drown the sorrow.
But loneliness, that is another type of condition altogether. Loneliness is not the result of some instant experience that requires some instant response to soothe the condition and that is that. Loneliness is a festering type of illness that builds up exponentially. Loneliness digs deep over time and finds a home deep down where superficial measures can’t quite get to.
The lonely sticks the seat in that stool for a long time, maybe forever. Because loneliness is when the gauge hits empty, and that person coasts to a stop. And when there is no go, and there is time to let the realization of the emptiness sink in, there is the realization of what it means to truly be alone.