Solo by Peter McGraw

Author:Peter McGraw [McGraw, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2023-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

Hermits and Hermettes

One of my favorite No Ways is Risa Mickenberg. The fifty-five-year-old writer, creative director, and performer resides in New York City. Once afraid of being alone, Mickenberg desired marriage and children, later quipping, “I realized that maybe I want to get married just so I can get divorced.”

She launched Hermette Magazine, a tongue-in-cheek lifestyle magazine for the “recluse by choice” one that “only comes out when it feels like it.” Her goal is to glamorize female aloneness. Mickenberg describes a Hermette as the feminization of a hermit—again, tongue firmly in cheek:

A Hermette can be any person who’s a rugged individualist, an iconoclast, and the steerer of your own ship. It’s a person who rejects the typical social constructs, chooses her own life, appreciates time alone and loves being alone, and draws a lot of energy from that. It’s an original thinker and a very attractive person. It’s somebody who has a force field of protection around them. Your life immediately becomes better when you meet a Hermette.

Mickenberg relishes when her friends cancel plans, freeing both parties from the obligation to be social. She joked, “I sort of want to tell everybody that I really want to be left the hell alone.” Emblematic of their lifestyle, the Hermettes have chosen a fitting mascot. With a shell on its back, the hermit crab has its home with it wherever it goes. A sanctuary tailored for one.

While monks usually live communally as part of a religious community, hermits choose to pursue spiritual growth and contemplation in solitude, often in remote locales.

While this phenomenon is less common now, the hermit as a symbol of spiritual devotion and independence persists in some parts of the world. People historically sought the counsel of hermits during periods of political or social upheaval for spiritual guidance and advice. The hermit lifestyle, defined by self-sufficiency and independence, has been romanticized and admired in many cultures.

It is interesting that eighteenth-century Britain saw a trend of adding hermits to estate grounds. Wealthy landowners constructed hermitages and even offered food, lodging, and a stipend to those willing to live in solitude. Having a resident hermit was seen as a fashionable accessory for the idyllic garden, with visitors often seeking the hermit’s spiritual conversation and guidance. Got to keep up with the Joneses!

The term “hermit” is often misunderstood. Hermits spend a lot of time alone, but like other No Ways, they are not misanthropes.

Charles Brandt was one such hermit. Brandt was deeply inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, a work that celebrated simplicity, self-reliance, and the beauty of nature. It guided him to a remote corner of Vancouver Island. There he lived a life unencumbered by others, embracing the principles of self-reliance and sustainability. He confessed, “I was called to this life.”

Brandt was not just any hermit; he was a hermit priest, part of a small group of eight ordained together in 1966. Such was Brandt’s dedication to his solitude that he relocated his hermitage miles away from his fellow hermit

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