Can you imagine hiding out for 17 years in a cave?

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VenomJockey

Ancient AH Pilot, Retired CWO W4.
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I would have to say anyone who can hide out in a cave for 17 years can make it in any SHTF that comes along!!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49874969

Excerpt: "The 63-year old, named Song Jiang by the police, had been jailed for trafficking women and children but escaped from a prison camp in 2002. He had been living in a tiny cave cut off from human interaction for years."
 
I guess he figured out that women were not worth the trouble...
 
Old topic, I know.
Just like Weedygarden, I could see myself living as a hermit but the worries or sustaining myself do creep up.
Not just that but being separated from my family, especially in current times just breaks my heart already.

Hermit life however has been something that's interested me in many ways for years. I remember watching a couple of podcasts on people who lived in the Alaskan wilderness and there was so much appreciation, respect and a little bit (a LOT) of envy.
Also growing up Catholic, I read up on different practices and orders and came across hermits and found that to be interesting as well.
 
I can think of reasons besides ourselves to get up in the morning in a hermit lifestyle. Nature, freedom, taking care of what one has built (the shelter, whatever it is, farming, the animals if there are any). And in religious or spiritual practices, it's cutting away from the world to get closer to God. Which, now that I think about it, are still things that could be done in normal urban life, I suppose. But the separation from society is a big draw, for me.

But from what I've read and seen on hermits, they can always be a little bit off and eccentric. It could be bad, it could be good..
 
Wanting to be by myself and conversing with God seems so selfish to me, I think there will be plenty of time to do that when I'm gone from this earth. I believe I am here not to be by myself, but to love and serve others. Not to hide out by myself. I can still have nature, freedom, farming, animals, and I do. But I get "not wanting to be of this world" type of thing. Being "worldly". Being in this world, but not of it. It can be done without being a monk in a cave.
 
There are a few here that live, or have lived, a hermit lifestyle. It takes a special person and it certainly isn't for everyone. It is all in your mindset. This is true about so many things in life. Self defence requires a mindset. Survival in a longer emergency situation requires a mindset. Most people don't care to develop the hermit mindset while some are born with it. I like people but in small doses.
 
I guess my question would be for how long? Does it have to be 17 years? Different folks have different characteristics. When I was out at the ranch, I spent most of my time alone, about an hour from the nearest human. Stayed in the camp trailer, would go see my folks on the weekend and saw my boss some/most mornings to check in. Went to town about an hour and a half away once a month to put my check in the bank and get groceries. That was the soundest of mind and most at peace in soul I've ever been. I could have gone to see someone if I wanted, but I didn't want to. That was just about the right amount of interaction for me. I know many would go nuts after 2 or 3 days of how I was living. Maybe that's not technically a hermit, but I think a hermit can be found in an appt. in NYC not just in a cave in the wilderness.
 
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