Interview with a Foothills Hermit

I decided to take a short hike in the forest which is just at the end of my street. The birds were happily singing, the ground squirrels were sniffling around for acorns, and occasionally a deer would scamper off. I was following what appeared to be a trail. You can imagine my surprise when I came upon a lean to in an area that had been cleared. There were a couple of fruit trees and a huge vegetable patch! A creek bed flowed nearby.

Something rustled off to my right and caught my eye! It was a man, who had been hunkered down by a small cook fire. Startled, I said hello and excused myself for invading his privacy. He told me not to worry about it and offered me a cup of hot tea. He seemed harmless, so I accepted his offer of tea. He poured me a cup and offered me a seat on a tree stump that looked like it was carved out to create a chair.

Here is a snippet of our conversation:

Me: How did you end up living here and how long have you been here?

Hermit: I came to be living here because I wanted to get away from the things of man. How long have I been here? Not long enough and years…ever since 2007.

Me: Why is that?

Hermit: Because back then corporate greed was all the rage, and I lost my job. Didn’t have any place to go. Lost my home, and tried to find jobs, but the government was too busy bailing out corporate America a year later. They could not bail out the individual who was suffering more. I had no other alternative but to find someplace to go where I could be alone, and away from it all.

Me: Why did you choose this place?

Hermit: It is public land and open to all for use. It’s away from everything and is away from the daily grind of the media that reports on items like the Kardashian’s instead of what’s really important. You know, the true issues of what life is in this country. And, it gets me away from people.

Me: Why do you want to be away from people?

Hermit: I got tired of being surrounded by those who wanted to take credit for things that I did. I volunteered my time quite a bit. I liked helping others out. And one day one of the folks that worked for where I was volunteering wanted to take credit for all of what I had done for them. This reminded me of jobs I had had in the past where I created new processes and procedures and had supervisor’s take all the credit for the work I had done. So whether a paid job or as a volunteer, someone always wanted to take credit for what I had done. I got tired of it. I also got tired of other people knowing everything, and not being able to back up any of it with factual information. And, if I did not follow their viewpoint, then I was deemed as a bad person in their eyes. And they spread around rumors about me that had not one ounce of truth, and pretty soon others shunned me for believing the rumors. What was really sad was seeing how other people could be swayed by what I consider to be the bullies in life. These are folks that haven’t left their bullying days on the playground behind. They huff and puff, throw tantrums just to get their way, and I was tired of it.

So, now here I am surrounded by nature. Nature that does not judge me, tell me what to do, or how to behave. It lets me live in peace.

We continued our conversation for a while. I had finished my tea and needed to get back home. I told the hermit what a pleasure it was to have met him and wished him well. He wrapped up our conversation with the following sentiment.

“The difference of working for man or working with nature, is that nature gives back.”