Part of me wants to retreat from the world for a day, or two - to walk outdoors where nature is thicker, to contemplate my life's purpose, to introspect.

But another part of me is afraid that I will soon grow tired of this exercise, that I will need the stimulation of entertainments, of books, of ideas from the internet.

My daily life is already a retreat, in a shallow sense. It is a retreat from television and from society. But in my daily life my mind is continually absorbed in computer programming or reading or learning - very little time is spent contemplating the great mysteries of one's own existence