Genius and Loneliness
“Sometimes I have the feeling of being alone in the world. Other times I’m sure. “
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
We always talk about “genius and recklessness”, yet, I am becoming more and more convinced, that even more than with recklessness, genius is accompanied by something different, and less pleasant, loneliness. It is an assertion that I arrived at simply on the basis of a personal statistics, based on what, up to now, have been my life knowledge. Yet, I’m sure, that if you notice it too, thinking about the most brilliant people that come to your mind (whether you know them directly, whether you’ve seen them at most on TV or in the newspapers), you will see that the names that the first to arrive are those with highly successful personalities but also very lonely.
Great writers, artists, singers, sportsmen, politicians and entrepreneurs: all those in which, objectively, it is possible to find great gifts of genius (each in his own field), are also the most alone, both in the public and in the private sector.
Strange to say since success is a great magnet towards others. But they are often relationships of convenience or that in any case, beyond the fascination that great geniuses know how to express, do not go. The genius is alone, there is little to do.
It is first of all because, precisely because I am a genius, it is difficult to find someone on “the same line as you”, as the English say. It is very complicated. A bit like the primes in Giordana’s book, genes are unable to break down except for themselves. Difficult to really get in tune with it. And this is also a source of great frustration because genes sometimes seek it out, sometimes they impose it on themselves, sometimes they suffer it. They are geniuses, but they also suffer.
Dimensions
But the genius needs solitude because it is only in this dimension that he is able to express himself. Let’s be clear: one thing that I understand and of which I am very sure is that many forms of psychological suffering arise not so much and not only from external traumas but also from the impossibility or inability to express what one really is. If we are made one way, by nature, but then try to channel ourselves according to socially accepted structures, sooner or later we will pay for it, in the form of anxiety, depression or similar ailments. So here is that the genius, what has been achieved, to get to that point, must have first of all recognized his genius and then must have chased it. And in this run-up it is inevitable that those around him get lost. A painful but indispensable process because this loneliness will be the humus on which his creativity will develop. De Andrè (great genius, great “solo”) used to say that loneliness can lead to extraordinary forms of freedom, and genius needs freedom to be able to express itself, you cannot cage it.
Genius therefore strongly influences the individual’s relationships, even the sentimental ones of relationships. In fact, there is no hope that a genius, the true genius, can truly bond with one person and forever. It is an illusion. They are great conquerors because, hell, they have charm to spare. You hear them talking, you see them express themselves, you see them create and you stay there, with your mouth open like a child at the carnival. How the hell can you not fall in love with a genius? How the hell do you do, when you get to know him closely, not to think that he is the perfect person to live a long life together without ever getting bored? How do you do? You do not do it! And in fact we fall in love with these damned geniuses, with the same predictability with which the fly ends up on honey. But the end is also the same, of the fly; you get caught up in it, you realize that then, seen from up close, life next to a genius is anything but pleasant, and when you try to detach yourself it is too late because it has literally entered your veins by now.
A fold
A tremendous fold which, however, never ceases to make me look with great fascination at all forms of genius and which, I do not deny, also pushes me to cultivate “my” forms of genius; everyone has the of him. Only now I look at the genius, that of others, always trying to keep a step away, because I no longer want to get entangled like the aforementioned fly.
I continue to admire genius because in it I recognize one of the salts of existence, one of the great distinctive signs that differentiate us from animals, certainly the first great engine of progress, not only the technical-scientific one, but also the artistic one, which for me is just as important.
We still need genes so badly. We will always need it. And patience if we will never be able to understand fully with them. If they let us down. If they betray us. We still need them and we have a duty to guarantee them the freedom they need. If we want to avoid getting hurt, we just have to stay one meter away from him, as I said before …
But whether they are one meter or one centimeter from us, they will always be a sight to behold.
“Sing and dance together and be happy, but make sure that each of you is also alone, as the strings of a lute are alone, although they vibrate to the same music.”
KHALIL GIBRAN
