Hermit Day and walking

Sunday October 29th, is known as Hermit Day, devoted to Hermits and celebrating Solitude as what complements our lives, full of constant social interactions.

The word “hermit” may invokes images of physically isolated individuals, and often envisioned as strange or odd. However, even in our ever busy lives, there are moments where we want to escape from the world, even if it is only temporary. And often we forget the importance of just being.

The word “hermit” derives from the Greek word Erėmos, which means solitary. And one of the first places that may come to mind that reflects this state of being are libraries. Solitude is something we often search for as we turn to a good book in a moment in between. A book is the perfect place to lose oneself and find respite from chaos and routine of everyday life. Reading as a completely solitary adventure.
In Renaissance libraries were often designed as studiolos, a studiolo was a place to retire, a large wooden structure, like an indoor hut for reading, placed in the house of a scholar, integrating a desk, a library, but also a meeting space for conversations with friends, with books at hand. It was depicted marvelously by Antonello da Messina, in his painting of St Jerome in His Studiolo, painted as a space in between indoors and outdoors, St Jerome writing in his study encircled by animals and birds.
Some of literature’s greatest poets and authors were hermits. Emily Dickinson did not leave her Massachusetts home once for the last seventeen years of her life, and much of her writing is introspective and reflective. Ralph Waldo Emerson believed strongly in the power of solitude, and wrote three essays, Society and Solitude, Self-Reliance, and Nature. Not in the least was Henry David Thoreau, who wrote Walden while alone in his cabin on Walden Pond. And all of them found inspiration for their solitary writing while walking, in nature and in the mind.
Don’t forget to check out our book page on WLC.
Complementary to reading a book, it may be the right day to join our Walking Detective Meet Up today, uncovering forgotten or not yet revealed walking art practices, welcoming as well your suggestions and discoveries of what is hidden and unknown about walking art.

See you there.

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