We live in a culture of self absorption and in this world were we are ever connected to Die Alone is a great tragedy. I try to see the silver lining, I imagine that the dead man who wore pajamas was someone like miyamoto musashi, self recluse for purposes of enlightenment, but this is just me not wanting to see what I fear maybe the way I may go.
Then I thought of the dead man in his pajamas, of solitude so utter and abysmal that for twenty years nobody in this whole wide world had realized that he had simply disappeared without leaving a trace. And my conclusion is that worse than feeling hunger and thirst, worse than being jobless, suffering for love, in despair over some defeat – worse than all this is to feel that nobody, absolutely nobody in this world, cares for us.
Let us at this moment say a quiet prayer for this man and let us offer him our thanks for making us reflect on how important our friends are.
via The dead man who wore pajamas – part II at Paulo Coelho’s Blog.