Some artists prefer solitude. Some celebrities seek out solitude. The other cannot. My thoughts are the same as Paradox Great answer. Login or Join to answer. We had trouble talking to the server. Please try again. Your answer will be saved while you login or join. Live Preview. Older ». Have a question? Ask Fluther! What do you know more about? You've got knowledge matches! Already a member?
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Gazelle vs. Jem vs. Mouse vs. You vs. Lubuntu vs. Virtual vs. Featured Comparisons Guidence vs. Togather vs. Maintenance vs. Brachycardia vs. Villainize vs. The definitions of the two words are quite similar. In fact, my religion would encourage more human contact rather than less.
But then, the definitions in Dictionary. Both terms date back to the 12th century or so. Both derive from Old French words. For me, being a recluse had the connotation of someone who deliberately set themselves apart from society. There was definitely a curmudgeonly aspect to being a recluse, but not anything particularly evil.
Though I do picture an old lady on a porch with a shotgun. But to me that term also implied a lack of bathing. An old man in filthy overalls and a beard.
I certainly intended to keep taking showers, so I leaned toward becoming a recluse. As it was, I met Virgil Snyder. The first thing he asked was if I had brought beers. When I told him I was interested in learning about solitude, he looked at me like I had just flown in from Planet Stupid. I wrote down everything he said, poring over my notes at night, searching for some searing insight among his professed hatred of, well, everything, and the litany of insults he had thrown my way.
After several visits, I was forced to admit that he was not the mountain sage I had been looking for. He was an angry drunk. The idea that those who withdraw from the world accrue great wisdom is an old and powerful one. In Hindu philosophy, all humans ideally mature into hermits. In the west, the idea has had a profound cultural impact. Peter France explores this in his book Hermits , attributing the creation of monasticism to the example set by the earliest Christian hermits, the Desert Fathers of Egypt.
One of the historical ironies France notes is the way hermits have been sought out for their advice on how to live in society.
The trend continues today, most notably in the case of the so-called North Pond Hermit. A Maine native, Christopher Knight lived alone in the woods without human contact for 27 years; his story came to light only after he was arrested for a spate of robberies in In the piece — reportedly the most-read GQ article ever — Finkel keeps pushing Knight on the subject and at one point it seems like he is about to spill the beans.
There was no road or habitation within 10 miles of him and apart from a trip to Albuquerque once a year to restock his supplies, the monk said that he never left the cabin. Buoyed by the serendipity of the timing I decided to go find him. I was greeted like a long-lost friend. Unlike Virgil, he understood my interest and tried to convey what the solitary life was like. He described moments when the silence around him was so profound it left him frozen to the spot, afraid that the noise of even one footstep would be deafening.
The desire to be a hermit had first come to him in his mids, he said, but it was not until his late 40s that he finally plucked up the courage. For the first year, he lived in a metre-wide shelter he built below an exposed rock face using slabs of stone and fallen trees.
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