Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: __ou are accepted.

Man lives 'in' meanings, in that which is valid logically, esthetically, religiously. The most fundamental expression of this fact is the language which gives man the power to abstract from the concretely given and, after having abstracted from it, to return to it, to interpret and transform it. The most vital being is the being which has the word and is by the word liberated from bondage to the given.

Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man__ being alone. It has created the word __oneliness_ to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word __olitude_ to express the glory of being alone. Although, in daily life, we do not always distinguish these words, we should do so consistently and thus deepen our understanding of our human predicament.

Language has created the word __oneliness_ to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word __olitude_ to express the glory of being alone.

Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man__ being alone. It has created the word __oneliness_ to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word __olitude_ to express the glory of being alone.

When I could find something to laugh about for 30 minutes, my grief lightened just enough to make the day bearable.