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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, [...]
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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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Here’s two short, telling articles from The New York Times archives. This one was published July 12, 1880: Other than being a reclusive hermit, we don’t really get any explanation of why Julia’s considered a “peculiar being.” That was probably peculiar enough. “Why she chose a hermit’s life is not known?” If my only available means of support were servant (unmarried), servant [...]
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Han-Shan was a curmudgeonly Zen mystic/philosopher born in the early 700′s, and is one of China’s most revered poets. His name translates to “Cold Mountain.” Han-Shan lived in a cave at the base of Hanyen, (Cold Cliff), in Chekiang Province and wrote his poetry on stone slabs and tree trunks. Three hundred of the poems survived and are [...]
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He lived with his goats in a primitive cabin off Horn Creek, deep in the forest near the Harts Lake Loop Road, Pierce County, Washington. He would occasionally hitchhike into McKenna for groceries – his source of income was unknown, possibly a meager pension. Bearded, with a worn felt hat and old sweater, I never [...]
No list of memorable hermits would be complete without one or two “mountain men.” Most Memorable Hermits No. 3 and 4 will be Jeremiah Johnson (played by Robert Redford) and Johnson’s mentor/aggravant “Bear Claw” Chris Lapp (played by the late Will Geer). The 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson was directed by the late Sydney Pollack. Filmed in [...]
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Another of Hiaassen’s recurring fictional hermits is Mick Stranahan, a retired (as in “asked-to-leave”) investigator for the Florida Attorney General. A serial husband (six ex-wives) and loner, he lives in a stilt house on Florida’s Biscayne Bay and when that is destroyed by a hurricane, he becomes caretaker of a nearby, isolated island. Stranahan’s investigative skills come in [...]
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I’ve only been reading “mystery” novels for about five years. One advantage of waiting so long to “discover” the genre, is now when find an author I like, I can go back and read all of his or her works. This is especially fun when the author writes series with recurring characters (common among mystery [...]
