The loner v the groupie

Are you a loaner or a group person. The loaner who would never think to join a group and a group person who could not imagine being out without the people they know being close.

One isn't right and the other wrong it simply shows us how diverse we all are and it's the diversity which I find interesting.
Setting off on ones own has some advantages. Even before you leave the house there is always room for turning back. The idea of a tramp through the countryside seemed a good one from the comfort of the arm chair but now the morning has arrived and there's rain in the air and a cold wind blowing. Reassembling your priorities is simple if you are but one since no one knows.
If it's a group meet you are committed since to turn back would be far more painful to the ego as the others asked you why and your feeble excuses would soon ring hollow.
Of course being with a group of like minded friends you soon spark off from them and the rain and the high wind are ignored or even become the reason for carrying on, adversity old chap is what made us what we are. The group made up of individuals each has a tale to tell and an interest to debate. They see what you don't, they inform when knowledge is fundamental to recognise what your eyes are looking at and they make you aware of the beauty when all you saw was the mundane.
Of course the loaner has another marvellous resource to tap into, his own brain. Walking has the magical effect of setting the blood coursing through the capillaries in the brain, sparking those self same conversations but this time with yourself. 

The flow of thoughts and the willingness to extrapolate your own sense of self is a rich process and one often wished one could captivate the thought to reflect on later. I used to carry a small tape recorder to do just that but the moment I spoke the image was gone, the thought sequence broken.
If the group are lending you the canvas to paint your thoughts on, even suggesting headings and solutions to thoughts you haven't yet had, isn't this just one more example of the human need to bond and nothing more. 

The individual brings home his own painting, like a Jackson Pollock scatter session, his colours and thoughts are all over the place but the finished product is rich in suggestive opportunities to find the person behind the tricks which we are taught from childhood to make ourselves opaque to others.