"The woman alone is self-oriented, she stands at the center of her universe. The words worry me; they have double meanings. “Self-oriented.” Self-respecting? Or just selfish? “Alone.” On my own, taking responsibility for myself? Or disconnected, cut off from others? I see two things at the same time when I think of aloneness for myself. On one hand, there is the freedom of it, the sense of choosing and being prepared to answer for one’s choices (given, yes, that all freedom is relative and all choices limited by culture, history, and circumstance). This sensation of self-reliance, of leading a self-created life, makes the present vivid; it is the high of being alone."