Memorable Hermit Dr. David R. Hawkins & Devotional Non-Duality

January 16, 2009

A colleague of nobel laureate Linus Pauling, Dr. David R. Hawkins became a spiritual teacher by way of a couple of near-death experiences; a very successful New York psychiatric practice; a temporary retreat into atheism; and at one point seven years in seclusion – not a bad combination for acquiring some pretty advanced spiritual wisdom. The [...]

A "Called" Writer: Memorable Hermit Thomas Merton

January 15, 2009

I will generally shy away from the consecrated Catholic hermits in this blog.  My exposure to and understanding of Catholicism is so limited that it hardly seems fair to mention even one.  But Catholic mystic Thomas Merton [1915-1968] wrote so eloquently about silence and solitude that he belongs on my list. Merton’s poems, essays and autobiography have a [...]

Memorable Hermit: Dirty Sally Fergus Played By Jeanette Nolan

January 1, 2009
Jeanette Nolan, age 32

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During one of his long programming phases, Griz routinely followed daytime reruns of the Gunsmoke TV series as background noise. I didn’t actually sit down and watch many episodes and there are a lot of episodes (635). The original series ran for 20 years before cancellation in 1975. Broadcast at one episode per day in reruns, that’s [...]

Lake Griz

January 1, 2009
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The stream at the low corner of our property can’t keep up with the snow melt.  At this time of year it normally runs swiftly, but stays at a maximum width of two or three feet. I’m naming the current flood expansion Lake Griz.  If  Griz could find a way to arrange it,  he too would [...]

Anthony Hopkins as Memorable Hermit Dr. Ethan Powell

December 3, 2008

In the 1999 movie Instinct, Anthony Hopkins plays a renowned anthropologist, Dr. Ethan Powell, who “goes ape,” vanishing for more than a year to live alone with a band of mountain gorillas.  This may not qualify him as a hermit in the truest sense, but that’s the advantage of a personal blog – if I think he’s [...]

Most Memorable Hermit J. D. Salinger. I Get It, J.D.

November 17, 2008
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J. D. Salinger will be 90-years-old on January 1, 2009. The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951.  Salinger’s reclusiveness has become as legendary as his literary contributions.  He seriously defends his privacy – with a high fence, occasionally with a shotgun, and persistently through legal means. A curmudgeonly, misanthrope if I ever [...]

The Elusive Bobcat and the Blogging "OFF" Switch

November 2, 2008
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A Blogging Hermit Status Report That last post on on Most Memorable Hermit Dick Proenneke flipped a switch. It flipped my blogging switch to the”OFF” position and I’ve been searching for the “ON” switch for a whole week now. I’ve had several opportunities and flashes of insight that would have easily translated into decent posts, [...]

Documenting a Life: Hermit Dick Proenneke "Alone in the Wilderness"

October 24, 2008

No Most Memorable Hermits list would be complete without Dick Proenneke (1916-2003) whose hermit life can frequently be viewed during PBS pledge-drives. “Alone in the Wilderness” tells Proenneke’s story of life alone in Alaska, relying on simple hand tools and his own physical labor to build  his cabin and sustain himself with little outside assistance – no small feat [...]

Curiously Close to the Mark – Hermit Brain Types: Griz is a Whiz, I am a "Peculiar Being."

October 19, 2008
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A few posts back I quoted Chinese hermit Han-Shan whose explanation of the hermit life included “our minds are not the same/if they were the same/you would be here” which reminded me that a few years ago Griz and I had the opportunity to complete Jonathan Niednagel’s Brain Type Questionnaire. Niednagel’s Brain Typing is a sport psychology [...]

Off-To-Be-a-Hermit Humor by Cartoonist Kevin Pope

October 12, 2008
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One of the best farewell greeting cards I ever received was this one by cartoonist Kevin Pope in the early 1990′s. I actually did quit my job (though I never did wear live [or dead] animals on my head).   Griz and I took off on one of our periodic sailing-into-the-wilderness adventures aboard S/V WaterBrother. By the time we returned, Griz [...]