About Alone

Post 50:

            One of the best written shows running recently started its final season. You may not have heard of it, I find it’s oft overlooked, but in case you haven’t seen Rectify, please do. It’s so well-written, no series drills down into characters like this one.

            The story feels real, lived-in. It centers around a man who was released from prison—he actually sat on death row for nineteen years until DNA evidence throws doubt on the prosecution’s case.

            It’s really about a man being reborn in his late thirties. He has been in isolation so long, and now he’s thrown right back into the real world—all the things that we take for granted, family, work, relationships—they’re all brand new challenges. He’s lived in a room waiting to die for over half his life.

            The show really makes me think about existence from a completely different perspective. I wonder what close to two decades of isolation would do to my own mind. He talks about how all you have is yourself, and in truly getting to know yourself, you paradoxically lose yourself.

            We all go through stages of sociability and self-imposed isolation. You can’t let the alone time become too prevalent, because you get weird. Oddly though, I really admire the way the main character’s human interactions are so earnest and childlike. He’s almost like a person walking around a museum, afraid to tarnish the wares with his mere presence.

            Check it out. It can be esoteric and slow, but it touches a part of the human condition that very few works of fiction cover. At least that I’ve seen or read. And I see and read a lot of stuff. That’s not a brag. WAY too much alone time.

            Onwards. Enjoy life on the outside. See you after.