On Fears and Recessions

I was reading a story in the Boston Globe called Doom Boom, which was about the feelings and thoughts of random people the reporter came across. They were asked what their greatest fears were. The article itself was obviously a little on the sensationalistic side, I mean seriously how do you chronicle a sense of doom and who says its booming? With that aside some of the answers were obvious, others were pretty deep, but its always interesting to see that one comment or thought that pierces your own point of view:

Inside the wilds of Harvard Yard, I ran into Jason McCoy, a Campus Life Fellow,
and Paul McLoughlin, chief of staff to the dean of the college. I asked McCoy
what scares him most and he said loneliness.

Ive actually met Jason McCoy through my day job and he comes across as anything but lonely, but I think that is whats intriguing about this answer. Its the sense that here is someone who is a Campus Life Fellow, his less formal name around town is the Fun Czar, and his biggest fear is loneliness. Some would feel that that fear would be akin to a child playing on a Revere Beach and worrying that he will run out of sand.

It made me wonder about my own life, and the lives of people like me. I have very social jobs, essentially it is my job to reach out to people, to go to meetings, to make phone calls etc. I do Facebook, Myspace, and Linked in. I go to local events, meetings, gatherings. I was at three places over the course of Thanksgiving Day. I'm not a lonely person, but it is one of my fears. I spent a good deal of my childhood feeling lonely, I just didn't know it at the time. More recently Ive felt quite lonely at work, and the funny thing is the more people I talk to, the more people that are around, the lonelier I can feel. I feel very isolated at both of my jobs, but the more uncomfortable I am the more I try to do, its an interesting cycle.

I think the article is rather silly, but I guess it was pretty good if it made me step aside from my life for a while and think.