The Benefit of the Doubt

“Don’t tell me what I’m doing; I don’t want to know.”—Federico Fellini

“Loneliness does not arise from there being no people around you, but from your inability to share with them the things that seem important to you.”—Carl Jung

Well, yes, I’m lonely, I can handle that,

I know the place, and in this ninth decade,

As Heaven knows, I’m somewhat used to it.

Watching the paint dry on the big parade,

You must admit the inadmissible—

For all the flaming good it does! And you,

You need to get the message too! No way!

I never shalI. (No point saying “will”!)

I’ll give “you” the benefit of the doubt.

What does it cost me, when all’s said and done?

There’s no toll booth on this benighted route,

Which willy-nilly I now call my own.

I never chose the road. Did it choose me?

I tried to tell—for figments love their fun!

Epigraphs: Federico Fellini quoted by his friend Ray Bradbury, in “Green Town, Somewhere on Mars; Mars, Somewhere in Egypt,” Introduction to The Martian Chronicles (rev. ed., Avon Books, 1997).

Carl Gustav Jung: „Einsamkeit entsteht nicht dadurch, dass man keine Menschen um sich hat, sondern dadurch, dass man ihnen die Dinge, die einem wichtig erscheinen, nicht mitteilen kann.“

July 21, 2026