Last week’s Little Dipper essay spoke of an encounter I had in Alaska with a hermit named Clifford Wright. That kind of solitude — living for decades alone in the heart of one of the greatest wilderness areas on the planet — is rare and perhaps not for everyone. But I truly believe that to be fully human, to become our best selves, we all need time alone, places to stand where there is just you and the world around your shoulders, a chance to hear your own voice, your own heartbeat, and recognize how it echoes and harmonizes with the voice of nature. You and the world, alone together.
Perhaps as much as “recreation days” and “economic stimulus” and all the other decimal points and dollar signs we use to measure the value of our national parks (what author Hal Borland calls the “new folklore of statistics), it is the opportunity for solitude itself that may be the truest measure of all.
To read an essay about solitude in the Apostle Islands called “The Hermit in all of Us” click below:
Yours, Alone
— Jeff Rennicke
(The “Apostle Islands Postcard” series is an offshoot of the Little Dipper blog. Paid subscribers also receive a full, original illustrated essay direct to their inbox every Wednesday morning. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, come aboard. Join the journey.