Several important concerns must be addressed that pertain to access, community and education. These concerns have tugged at me throughout the writing of this book, so it would be irresponsible to neglect these in our present discussion on solitude.

The first concern pertains to access, in particular around the question “Who can access solitude?” and then “In what ways?” This is not only a socioeconomic question but also a political one. The second concern pertains to community. In conversations with colleagues over the course of my writing, several individuals have suggested that a focus on solitude comes at the expense of community. These colleagues believe it would be better to talk about how we can bring people together rather than encourage them to spend time in solitude. This line of thinking is, I believe, mistaken, but it nevertheless requires attention.

A third concern pertains to education, in that some will argue that it becomes very difficult for a person brought up in a modern education system, focused on jobs and skills, to learn how to spend time alone. This concern has merit, and so I will propose several ideas that universities in particular might wish to consider in order to provide their members with greater opportunities for solitude. I will address these three concerns in the order outlined above.

SOLITUDE AND ACCESS

Earlier, in Part I, I briefly discussed the work of behavioral economists Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir in their book Scarcity. The authors argue that material scarcity contributes to psychological scarcity, which they call the “scarcity trap.” A “bandwidth tax” makes it difficult for individuals to dedicate their time and energy to nonimmediate needs, say, to longer- term goals and aspirations. A young single mother working in multiple jobs, for instance, must first ensure financial security before other tasks can be focused on (and even then, the mother might not have very much energy to waste thinking about other things, like what kind of job or career she might wish to be in). The scarcity trap concept is powerful, and I believe that it has implications for our discussion on solitude.