A feature of The Guardian on the coronavirus lockdown is an interview with Sara Maitland, author of The Book of Silence and How To Be Alone. he article is titled “Sara Maitland: Savour solitude – it is not the same as loneliness.”
Fausto Mottalini, Italian hermit
The South China Morning Post reports on a contemporary Italian hermit: Fausto Mottalini. The article is titled “Self-isolation tips from a 21st century hermit in ‘ghost’ village in the Alps, where for 14 years he has been the only resident.” Excerpt:
Fausto Mottalini, 69, is the only inhabitant of a medieval Alpine “ghost hamlet” called Sostila in northern Italy. He has lived as a hermit for the past 14 years, and feels safe and protected in his little eyrie, even though the deserted village is in Lombardy. In Italy, one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic, Lombardy is the region which has seen the most Covid-19 cases.
Mottalini is a lucky man. As the sole resident of this hamlet, frozen in time, where even weekend tourists are a rare sight, there’s no risk of him bumping into anyone. He’s free to go out for long treks, where he can gaze across green valleys of sun-kissed meadows where cattle graze, framed by snow-capped mountain peaks.
“Things haven’t changed for me,” he says. “I keep doing the same stuff each day: I wake up early, cut wood for the fire, look after the orchard and greenhouse, and then go out hiking and rock climbing, shooting pictures of nature, flowers and the beautiful scenery. I come back at sunset and prepare dinner. I’m free to go out whenever I want.”
David Glasheen, Australian hermit
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Company) offers a report titled “When David Glasheen lost everything, moving to a remote island saved him.”
“In his earlier life he lived in Sydney where he built a multi-million-dollar mining company. But he lost most of his family’s wealth, around $37 million today, in the stock market crash of 1987. Shortly after, his marriage broke down. He was ‘wounded, seriously wounded’.
“He arrived on Restoration Island after hearing about it through a friend — and never left.”
Radio program “On Solitude and Hermits”
Connecticut Public Radio’s Colin McEnroe Show pursues the topic of “Solitude and Hermits” in a program featuring Buddhist writer Stephen Batchelor, Lucinda Mosher of the Hartford Seminary, and Karen Karper Fredette, author of Consider the Ravens: On Contemporary Hermit Life and co-editor with her husband Paul of Raven’s Bread.
“Van Gogh and the Nature of Solitude”
A brief essay from the Art Institute of Chicago on “Van Gogh and the Nature of Solitude.” Van Gogh’s works are haunted with a profound sense of solitude.”He shares his solitude with you because solitude was his abiding theme.”
URL: https://www.artic.edu/articles/813/van-gogh-and-the-nature-of-solitude