Gianandrea Heyer : Hermit life

In one of his books -“La promessa”- Friedrich Duerrenmatt, a famous swiss contemporary writer, claims that the hermit lifestyle is the best one for human happiness. He means that the fact of being isolated from any other human being, and at the same being in strict contact with the wilderness brings gives you the best life experiences. I thought about it for a while, trying to recall my own experiences I had when I was alone in the wilderness. I thought that even though the nature can give you something you’d never receive from any human being, the human interrelation is vital. In class we saw that all these people going through the Appalachian Trail were happy. But none of them were alone, they all enjoyed the fact that there was somebody to hang out with and share their experiences with. I do not know if somebody would be able to do the whole trail, avoiding any human contact. Would that be as good of an experience as sharing it with other people met along the trail? I do not think so.