学文网For the last 16 years, Nick Fahey has been living on an island in the San Juan 1)archipelago north of 2)Puget Sound, in Washington State, where his only full-time companion is a 26-year-old3)quarter horse. Mr. Fahey, 67, lives in a cabin on 100 wooded acres; it has no refrigerator, but there is electricity generated by solar panels, so he has light and can 4)charge his cell phone. There are few 5)amenities of the material kind, but his days are his own. With the exception of cutting wood for fuel and to support himself―occasionally he makes a trek to neighboring islands or the mainland, to sell the wood or buy groceries―he is free to do as he pleases.
Getting away from it all: it’s a common fantasy. But for some people, fantasizing isn’t enough. For whatever reason, perhaps the desire for peace and quiet in an increasingly 6)frenetic world, an attempt to escape the intrusiveness of technology or the need for an isolated place to recover from heartbreak, they feel compelled to act out the fantasy, seeking the kind of solitude found only in the remotest locations.
The compulsion to live in isolation can be attributed to any number of factors, said psychologist Elaine N. Aron. Some people might “really need their 7)downtime,” Dr. Aron said, and may seek out “isolation that avoids all social intercourse.” Others may have developed an “8)avoidant attachment style” in childhood, resulting in “a need to prove to themselves that they don’t need anybody,” she said. For many people, though, the desire for extreme solitude may have simpler roots, she noted: “It could be because they want a mystical experience. You can’t 9)pathologize that.”
In Mr. Fahey’s case, he moved to the island full time in 1994, several years after he divorced. Not because he was 10)traumatized, he said, but because he liked the “feeling of freedom when you’re by yourself. You don’t have to answer to anybody.” Once a week, though, he goes to Anacortes, a town on the mainland, 10 miles away by boat, to visit his 99-year-old father in an assisted-living home and to see his girlfriend, Deborah Martin, whom he has been dating for 15 years. Ms. Martin, 56, explained: “We are both pretty independent, and I imagine that’s partly why it works. We don’t have the same expectations that other couples might, like, ‘I need you to be here every night.’”
For Roger Lextrait, 63, living in 11)seclusion seemed like an appealing change after a 12)harried life as a restaurateur in Portland, Oregon.
Mr. Lextrait was the sole inhabitant of the remote tropical 13)atoll of Palmyra, in an island chain in the Northern Pacific Ocean, more than 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, from 1992 to 2000. He 14)wound up there in his mid-40s, after nearly a dozen years of sailing around the world on his yacht, following his divorce and the sale of two restaurants in the early 1980s. Exhausted by his years on the boat, he agreed to take a job as the island’s caretaker, warning ships off the reefs and 15)discouraging vandals. The post was supposed to last a few months, but Mr. Lextrait stayed for eight years.
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Part of the draw of living on the island was that “time did not matter―sometimes I would lose track of the year,” he said. “It was so magical, millions of birds, turtles. When I’d go out with the 16)dinghy, 17)manta ray would escort me, dolphins.” Still, island life took its toll. “I got attacked by loneliness,” said Mr. Lextrait, who came to depend on the company of his German shepherd mix. His infrequent visitors would ask things like “What are you going to do if a coconut falls on your head?”―given that the nearest doctor was hundreds of miles away. “I said, ‘18)Oh my, if I think like that, I’ll never do anything.’”
Others choose a 19)reclusive lifestyle as a political statement. Edward Griffith-Jones, a 27-year-old British man, spent the last year living in a hut he built in a national park in Sweden. It was his way of being environmentally responsible, he said.
Living deep in a Swedish forest, he had to take an hour and a half walk from the nearest train station―a trip that could take four hours during the winter, when the snow was deep. He had a cell phone, which he charged with a small solar generator and used to call his family and his girlfriend. His diet was not for the fainthearted. Along with 20)perch and 21)pike from nearby lakes, he ate wild plants like 22)nettles, berries and 23)tubers, as well as mice and rats. He couldn’t hunt larger 24)game because he didn’t have a gun―to purchase one, he would have had to provide an address―but he began studying how to make a bow and 25)fletch arrows. Every aspect of his daily routine was essential to his survival.
David Glasheen, 66, likened his experience of living alone to “going to the moon.” He lives on Restoration Island, off the northern coast of Australia, with his mixed-breed dog, and has been there since 1996.
An entrepreneur who said he has worked in a number of fields―including mineral exploration, food services and toys―he had suffered a series of financial losses and divorce when a girlfriend suggested escaping to an island in the early 1990s. “I just wanted the idea of a less stressful life,” he said. “I figured there had to be something better than this out there.” Mr. Glasheen was living in Sydney at the time and found the island, an uninhabited national park, through a real estate agent. He and his girlfriend set up residence there, but she left after six months. “We had a baby, we had no hot water, we had no washing machine,” he said. “Things are not easy here for a woman.”
Mr. Glasheen had built a farm on the island. Along with native foods like 26)lemon grass and 27)capers, he raises 28)bok choy, tomatoes and corn. He also makes home-brewed beer that he trades for 29)prawns from30)trawlers that sometimes 31)anchor off shore.
There is an inherent conflict between the peace of total solitude and the pleasures of companionship, he admitted. “It’s literally like living in heaven on Earth,” he said of the island, but “I guess I could say I’m desperately lonely sometimes.”
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在过去的16年里,尼克・费伊一直住在华盛顿州普吉特海湾北面圣胡安群岛中的一个小岛上,终日陪伴他的只有一匹26岁高龄的夸特马。现年67岁的费伊先生住在一间建于一片占地100英亩的林地里的小木屋中,屋里没有电冰箱,但可以借助太阳能电池板发电,所以他有电灯,也可以给手机充电。尽管物质条件不尽如人意,但费伊过得逍遥自在。平日里,费伊会砍些木头来生火,偶尔会长途跋涉到附近的岛屿或岛外的陆地上卖自己砍来的木头或是买些生活用品回来维持基本的生活,除此之外的时间他可以自由支配,随心所欲。
抛开一切,远离尘嚣,这样的白日梦大家都做过。但对于某些人来说,光空想还不够。也许是想在愈渐狂躁的俗世中渴求一份平和与宁静,或者是妄***避开科技的侵扰,又或者需要躲在一处偏僻之地修复破碎的心,不论出于何种原因,他们迫切想要跳出空想,付诸行动,去寻求只能在杳无人烟之地才能寻求到的独居生活。
心理学家伊莱恩・N・艾尔伦表示,有很多因素会导致人们迫切渴望过上独居的生活。艾尔伦博士说,有些人可能“真的需要停下手中的工作”,并可能会想“隐居起来,避开所有的社交活动”。还有一些人可能在童年时期就逐渐形成了一种“回避型的依恋模式”,结果导致以后“总要向自己证明他们不需要任何人的陪伴,”她说。然而对于大多数人来说,渴望彻底地独处可能是出于一种更简单的理由,艾尔伦指出:“可能是因为他们想要获得一种具有神秘感的体验,你不能将其视为一种病态。”
而费伊先生的情况是,他于1994年搬到这个小岛定居,当时他已离婚了好几年。据他所说,他隐居并非因为心灵受到创伤,而是因为他喜欢“独自一人时那种自由自在的感觉,你不需要迎合任何人。”然而每周,他都会乘船去一次阿纳科特斯――距离该岛10英里的大陆上的一个市镇,去看望他那住在一所护理院里的99岁的父亲以及女友黛博拉・马丁。他俩谈恋爱已经谈了15年。56岁的马丁女士说:“我们都很***,我想这大概是我们的恋爱关系能持续如此久的部分原因吧。我们没有其他夫妻对伴侣的那些诸如‘我需要你每晚都呆在这里陪我’的期望。”
对于现年63岁,曾在俄勒冈州的波特兰开餐馆而忙得焦头烂额的罗格・莱科斯曲特而言,隐居对其人生来说是一种可喜的转变。
从1992年到2000年这些年间,莱科斯曲特是偏远的巴尔米拉热带环礁上唯一的居民。巴尔米拉环礁是北太平洋岛链上的一个岛,位于夏威夷以南,与夏威夷相距1000多英里。上世纪80年代早期,莱科斯曲特在经历离婚以及变卖两个餐馆这些事情后,开着自己的游艇花了近12年的时间来环游世界。最后,在他四十来岁时,他来到了巴尔米拉环礁。多年的船上生活让他心生厌倦,他于是接受了看管巴尔米拉环礁的工作,负责警告船只避开暗礁以及驱逐环礁的破坏者。莱科斯曲特先生原本只打算干几个月就走,但结果一呆就是8年。
吸引莱科斯曲特在这个岛上住下的部分原因在于“时间无关紧要――住在这里,我有时会弄不清楚自己处在哪个季节,”他说,“这里栖息着数百万只鸟和海龟,太不可思议了。当我划着小舢板出海时,蝠鲼和海豚会为我护航。”尽管如此,孤岛生活也让他付出了代价。“我为寂寞所困扰,”莱科斯曲特先生说,他现在主要依赖自己那只混血的德国牧羊犬作伴。偶尔会有几个访客,他们会问些诸如“如果椰子砸到了你的头上,你会怎么办?”的问题――鉴于离他最近的医生也在几百英里之外。“我会说,‘天呐,如果我老是担心这担心那,那我就什么也干不了了。’”
还有些人选择隐居来表明自己的***治立场。27岁的英国小伙子爱德华・格里菲斯-琼斯去年一整年都住在瑞典某国家公园中他自建的一间小木屋里。他表示要以此履行他对环境负责的承诺。
住在瑞典这么一片森林的深处,他得走上一个半小时才能去到最近的火车站――冬天雪厚时要走上4个小时。他有一部用来和他的家人以及女友通话的手机,以及一台可以为手机充电的小型太阳能发电机。他赖以为生的食物胆小的人决不敢吃。除了吃从附近的湖里捕的鲈鱼和梭子鱼,他还吃诸如荨麻、浆果和球根等野生植物,小鼠、大鼠他也吃。他无法捕获大型猎物,因为没有***――购买***支需提供住址――但他开始研究如何制造弓和羽箭了。他的日常事务的方方面面都事关生存大计。
66岁的戴维・葛拉辛则将自己的独居经历比作“去了一趟月球”。自1996年起,他就和他那条混血狗住在澳大利亚北海岸以外的复原岛上。
这位曾经的企业家说,他曾涉足矿产探测、食品服务和玩具业等多个领域,在遭受离婚以及一连串经济损失的打击后,上世纪90年代初,他的女友建议他找个小岛隐居起来。“当时我只想过一种压力小一些的生活,”他说,“我想,隐居在小岛上的生活肯定比我那会儿的生活要好。”葛拉辛先生那时住在悉尼,他通过一位房产经纪人找到了这个杳无人烟的国家公园小岛。他和女友搬到岛上住,但住了6个月后,他的女友就离开了。“当时我们有个婴儿要照顾,这里没有热水,也没有洗衣机,”他说,“这里的生活对于一个女人来说的确不易。”
葛拉辛先生在岛上建了一个农场。除了种植诸如柠檬草和马槟榔之类的本地食物以外,他还种了白菜、西红柿和玉米。他还自酿啤酒,并拿去和把船停泊在小岛岸边的拖网捕鱼者换大虾。
彻底的独居生活所拥有的平静不可避免地会和与人交往所获得的愉悦发生冲突,他如此承认道。“生活在这儿简直就像生活在人间天堂里,”他如此评价这个小岛,但“我想,得承认,有时,我会感到孤独至极。”
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