Thoughts on being a hermit

I think I've always been fascinated with the idea of being a hermit. Just dropping out from society and running away from it all. I thought about it many times as a kid (doesn't every kid?).

It's not that my life has been bad, it hasn't. I've been blessed in many ways. Sure, there are times when job or life pressures overwhelm me, but there's always tomorrow and when you look at the grand scheme of things, does it really matter if one thing falls off your oh-too-crowded plate? But there's a certain allure...

The first time I blogged about it was in 2005 (here), then two years later I posted about it again (here). Then less than a month later I posted about Drew Peterson who thought his wife just ran away and Ian Darwin who actually did run away for five years (see here).

Then in 2008, I posted twice about being a hermit: in March about a man who sold everything to run away (here) and in April, a some-what tongue-in-cheek post about running away (here).

So with all this hermit/running away fascination, what keeps me from doing it? Well first, life in the here-and-now isn't that bad. In fact, it's quite good. And if I ever doubt it, all I have to do is look around and see pictures of my family. And if it does get bad, I can look at where I've been and see that He's gotten me through a lot worse and will get me through the day's problems.

Which brings me to my point. Becoming a hermit would mean hurting a lot of people that I really care about. Back in 2009, a man, named Bruce Windsor in my town did just that. He found an interesting way to become a hermit, he robbed a bank. Life was at a bad point for him and the walls were caving in. By robbing the bank, he ran away for 25-years-to-life. (He got caught. Read my blog posts here and here).

Now I read where someone else has done it. Brenda Heist simply ran away from her family in 2002 and never contacted them again until earlier this week (full story here). Her family thought she was dead. She caused them a lot of grief. Now that she's back in the real world, her daughter doesn't want to speak to her. Which shows how wrong it is to simply run-away.

Still, there is that Siren song, calling...