news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
RTL Today, a Luxembourg media site, offers an article on Schetzel (or Schetzelo), a twelfth-century hermit of Luxembourg. Little is known of Schetzel besides his exemplary life and his residency in a cave in Grunewald.
URL: https://today.rtl.lu/culture/film-and-books/a/1438661.html
Smithsonian magazine offers an article titled “The Inspiring Monk Who Lived in a New Mexico Cave,” about Giovanni Maria de Agostini, “a peripatetic Italian monk who was banished from Brazil, reached northern New Mexico on foot in 1863.” The monk spent the rest of his New Mexico life in a mountain that came to be known as Hermit Peak. The hermit monk still attracts members of the Societyof the Hermit, local history buffs, the article describing one family of enthusiasts who make an annual pilgrimage to the mountain and cave.
URL: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/inspiring-monk-lived-new-mexico-cave-180973501/
A clever, informed, and useful piece from Quartzy is titled “Why millennials never want to leave their apartment anymore.” Right up to date as far as the effects of work, technology, money, and post-capitalist society. A related article in the New York Times is titled “Why You Should Find Time to Be Alone With Yourself,” and Japan Today has a similar review of the topic of “living alone.”
URL: https://qz.com/quartzy/1748191/how-millennials-became-a-generation-of-homebodies/; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/smarter-living/the-benefits-of-being-alone.html; https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/living-alone-becoming-a-way-of-life-for-many-but-that%27s-not-necessarily-for-worse
The Asahi Shimbun summarizes current statistics on hikikomori in Japan in an article titled “Hikikomori rate highest in 40s, yet support targets youth.” The article is thorough in examining the statistics, including all prefectures, most major cities, and many local governments. In Nagano Prefecture, for example, older hikikomori constitute over 63 percent of all hikikomori.
Brain Pickings offers a nicely-done item on Hermann Hesse and solitude, titled “Hermann Hesse on Solitude, the Value of Hardship, the Courage to Be Yourself, and How to Find Your Destiny,” with related quotes on suffering, creativity, and other themes from various poets, writers, and thinkers.
URL: https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/01/15/hermann-hesse-solitude-suffering-destiny/