![]() Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha all spent significant time alone before introducing a new religion to the world. Most do so for religious purposes, to forge a closer bond with a higher power. But there are really only three general reasons why people leave the world. There have been hermits – also known as recluses, monks, misanthropes, ascetics, anchorites, swamis – at all times in recorded history, across all cultures. He had given the question plenty of thought but had never arrived at a specific answer. Knight said that he didn’t really know why he left. As far as anyone knows, the car is still there, half-swallowed by the forest. It had just about zero gas and I was miles and miles from any gas station,” he said. Why not hold on to the keys as a safety net? What if he didn’t like camping out? Knight was raised with a keen appreciation of the value of money, and the car was the most expensive item he had ever purchased. His final gesture, leaving his keys in the car, was particularly strange. Following his disappearance, Knight’s family must have suffered they had no idea what had happened to him, and couldn’t completely accept the idea that he might be dead. “To the rest of the world, I ceased to exist,” said Knight. W hy would a 20-year-old man abruptly abandon the world? The act had elements of a suicide, except he didn’t kill himself. Photograph: Mauricio Handler/Getty Images/National Geographic Magazines Without knowing where he was going, with no particular place in mind, he stepped into the trees and walked away.Ī forest tree canopy in Rockport, Maine. He had a tent and a backpack but no compass, no map. Knight parked the car and tossed the keys on the centre console. Then a trail off that.” He went as far into the wilderness as his vehicle could take him. Soon he reached the shore of Moosehead Lake, the largest in Maine, and the point where the state begins to get truly remote. The last time he saw his family home was through the windscreen of his car. “I think it was just to have one last look around, to say goodbye,” he said. There aren’t many roads in the centre of the state, and he chose the one that went right by his family’s house. He drove north to Maine, where he had grown up. Every meeting with another person seemed like a collision. Interacting with others was so often frustrating. ![]() Driving through Georgia and the Carolinas and Virginia, blessed with invincibility of youth, buzzed by “the pleasure of driving”, he sensed an idea growing into a realisation, then solidifying into resolve.Īll his life, he had been comfortable being alone. Ronald Reagan was president the Chernobyl nuclear disaster had just occurred. Eventually, he turned around and headed north.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |