Exile

Just another ordinary day like all the other ordinary days. When the sun comes out and that is the high point of the day, it is an ordinary day. The routine is the same, the meals are the same, the clothes are the same, and the entertainment that fills the day is all the same. The exercise ride is the same. The produce and the bread and the frozen food are in the same place and the faces are the same.

Communication is kept to the basic typing through a thin wire to those near and far away. Sometimes a message goes out and is replied to like a conversation and other times there is no reply.

If the wire breaks, then what?

Exile means to be away from one’s family and friends while either being refused permission to communicate.

Exile can also be a self-imposed departure from one’s former existence.

Self-exile is depicted as a form of protest. A person can claim self-exile, to avoid persecution or legal matters or criminal allegations, an act of shame or repentance, or isolating oneself to be able to devote time to a particular thing.

Exile was a punishment or a depriving contact with others of the same species. Maybe it wasn’t.

So few of us spend time by ourselves. Engulfed in family and work and more family and television and problems and phone calls and emails and all that stuff, we really don’t know what to do when we are alone.

Suppose the electricity was turned off and no one else was at home and you didn’t get any mail and the phone didn’t work and the car was out of gas. What would you do?

The walls to exile can be built by others or constructed by you. Allowing a moat around you can be protective or preventative. It can be made to keep them out or keep you in.

So why do travel agents promote the lone island retreat where one can get away?