The Solitude We Choose There is a kind of loneliness no one imposes on you. It isn't the empty apartment, or the friend who stopped calling, or the room that empties out after everyone else has gone home. It's quieter than that, and stranger — a distance you build yourself, brick by brick, then stand inside and call safety. I've wondered, more than once, whether the isolation I feel is something that happened to me or something I arranged. The two get tangled. A person can sp