Modern Hermits
March 15, 2008
A hermit (from the Greek erēmos, signifying “desert”, “uninhabited”, hence “desert-dweller”; adjective: “eremitic”) is a person who lives in seclusion and/or isolation from society. According to Sociologist Isacco Turina modern hermits no longer wear long beards and hide away in caves, they live in apartments and surf the Internet just like you or me.
“At the risk of sounding like a caricature, the average hermits are the sort of people who belong on the plains,” he said. “However,” he added, “many have found it is perfectly possible to be totally alone in the middle of a bustling city.”
While working on his new book ‘The New Hermits, The Flight from the World in Modern Italy’ Professor Turina tracked down 37 hermits. He said that most of them were “around 55 years old, and that they had decided to drop out of the rat race when they were between 35 and 50.”
“More people are opting to lead a hermit’s life and turn their backs from the modern world, “although there is no institutional guide on how to do it,” adding that “around 60% of hermits are female.”
As professor Turina said there are now as many as 1000 hermits in Italy, with several hundred more dotted across Europe and the US. According to him, their return started in 1983 when the Vatican offered “full recognition” to hermits who were willing to devote their lives to the solitary “praise of God”.
A company called Spiritour even offers “hermit holidays” in the dunes of Morocco, while Ictus Voyages have a similar retreat in the Sinai desert. Who knows, maybe we could use a break from our lives. I know I certainly would.
I am a 58-yr. old woman who has been semi-hermit for a few years now. I live in Uptown Minneapolis in a small apartment with a tiny chihuahua (can you really be a hermit with the company of another being?) for company. I have an ebay business that I shop the thrifts solo for. I go to art museums alone and so on. I was very wild in my earlier years, loved a few good men, and a few bad. I have cable tv and watch cnn and hbo, for social anthropology and art. I am an agnostic, comfortably so. I only see going further in this direction. I do have a rich inner life which sustains me. I don’t regret my, what I consider natural tendency, “decision.” I love people, on my terms. I don’t really enjoy big social occasions any more.
Cool. I didn’t realize how many of us there are! Although I was kind of forced into hermitage 14 years ago, when illness struck…over the past few years I have found I do not want to “go back” to the noise and suffering brought by continual striving/competing for “more and more” that seems to make up most of human life. I have my spiritual practice, my books, food and shelter…what more do I need?
I have recently “blown up the blackberry, smashed the cellphone, and lost the laptop” to quote a recent “slowpoke” cartoon. I wasn’t getting near my share of the productivity dividend created by all this technology. I’m a hermit, for now, but I’m not sure if that’s for me. I know where every thrift shop in S.E. WI is, I could never pass one while in the field. My plan is to use the tech myself, and keep all the proceeds. All the corporate parasites and Wall St. moneychangers can go to hell. If I’m smart enough to use the tech, I’m too smart to work for $15/hr. All of the e-hermits should use the web to become a network, and just keep tearing pieces off the carcass of capitalism. I’m tired of being commoditized (sp?). More of us need to drop out of the corporate world, and put the investor class in their place, good riddance to bear stearns, too bad their bailout will further devalue my savings. In finishing, I don’t know if this is quite on topic, I don’t want to be totally alone, just free of the evil of corporate Amerika.
…to all of you hermits; i love each and everyone of you!!! you are in the world but not of it, as us christians. welcome; and get to know your father threw jesus christ…!!! you are called away for a purpose and will find your purpose threw the lord. you are far more in the truth then you realize; and the lord will show you who you are… take your position; you are chosen!!!
Great, three posts about hermits, and they’ve already drawn a stalker. I hope the threw/through error is deliberate. I presume the chosen position for the chosen is prone.
im a real hermit, long beard and all, i dont like people,they annoy me, i think society sucks, i think the system sucks too. i wish i lived way out in the wildernessm but ofcourse that be illegal,
roswellhermit
Am trying to live as a 62 year old hermit in the Hill Country of Texas. A religious hermit at that. I do keep cell phone and laptop and TV (minimal) and read a lot.
Any advice to someone new at the life.
Thanks