The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

by Michael Finkel

Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, wrote that nothing can be expressed about solitude “that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.”

“I was never lonely,” said Knight. He was attuned to the completeness of his own presence rather than to the absence of others.

Modern life seems set up so that we can avoid loneliness at all costs, but maybe it’s worthwhile to face it occasionally.

We live locked in our own heads and can never entirely know the experience of another person. Even if we’re surrounded by family and friends, we journey into death completely alone.