Once, as I laid in tall grass somewhere in the Georgia wilderness, loneliness really struck me. I felt it press down upon me like a heavy blanket soaked through with cold water. I was on watch during a field training exercises that I participated in while I was in Army Basic Training on what was then called Fort Benning. I knew I had several hours ahead of me trying desperately to stay awake, and as I battled complete exhaustion and fear of being caught sleeping, I felt totally isolated. Even though I was surrounded by a company numbering more than a hundred men, I felt very alone. But when we returned from the field training several days later, letters from home had arrived. All of us, young men who had been training in combat with such bravado, spent an hour sitting on bunks or hunched in wall lockers, weeping as we read the words of friends and family. We were aching for the companionship of our loved ones. As it turns out, all of us have this similar aching need for deep relationship.