The Making of a Hermit

I was born the 6th. of 7 kids to a poor farm family in the mountains of Pennsylvania, we were poor but I didn’t know it because all our neighbors were about as poor. I was a born a freak because I was born with a bad drooping left eyelid that made everyone look at me with wide eyes and a surprised look of pity on their face. I had a lot of temper tantrums and tried to tear a lot of things up, but as I was the 6th. child, my mother had seen it all before and just ignored me. I soon got over having fits when I didn’t get the attention I wanted, besides it was mostly my stuff that I was tearing up.When I was 11, we moved to the near west side of Cleveland, Ohio, my mother got a job as a nurses aide and my dad got a job in the Ford foundry. By that time there were just 3 of us kids at home, we seemed to have a lot more money. I got a dollar a week allowance, which was a lot of money in the mid 50′s. I felt out of place, being a Hick from PA with a bad eye. I was ashamed of my Hillbilly family, I didn’t even want to walk with them. I missed the easy life of the old farm and hated the rough gang life in the big city. It was the start of my wanting to someday get back to the country. I got married at 19 to Rita Borowske on November 23, 1963, the day after John Kennedy was shot, we had three kids and a lot of trouble. I got a job as a draftsman and studied a ICS correspondence course in mechanical engineering for nine years. I passed my state test and become a Registered Mechanical Engineer in 1972. Rita and I got divorced in 1979. I had two more failed marriages in the next 6 years. I started a one man mechanical engineering consulting business in 1985, but my fast paced life was getting me no where. The urge to get back to nature was getting stronger all the time. I was raised a Lutheran, but when we moved to Cleveland, my parents quit going to church. I quit a few years later because in my tough neighborhood you didn’t go to church, it was almost as bad as being a Boy Scout. I turned Catholic for Rita after we got married, but I never accepted the Pope as infallible. I attended church until I got divorced from Rita. I quit because even though the church was against divorce, they still wanted me to attend for my donations. I never felt close to God, but every time I got myself in real trouble. God was always there to get me through my grief, then I would put Him back on the shelf until the next time. I knew better in my heart, but I adopted most of the worlds ways as my ways. I moved to this remote 55 acre mountain ranch in 1989 to get out of the Rat Race. I live at an elevation of 7800 feet above sea level, at the end of an unpaved county road, 1 mile past the end of winter maintenance sign, where they stop plowing the snow. I am snowed in about 6 months a year. My only heat is from a wood stove, I have a propane heater, but have not used it for several years. I don’t watch TV, except for videos. I do have a phone. I am not connected to the public electrical system, I have a Photo-voltaic, windmill, battery, electric system with an inverter for the computer and watching videos. I recently got on the internet so I could write articles on this blog, I had been proud that all my spam came in a can. I slowed down the pace of my life right from the beginning, it took me four years to build my small cabin, and it only blew down once during construction. I did not move to the mountain to become a hermit, but over the first five years, I had less and less to do with the world. I took down the TV antenna, and even had the telephone disconnected for a couple of years. I did not hate my neighbors, but they got scared of me because I wouldn’t talk to them. I was very happy here alone with God and nature, except God kept after me to learn to love my neighbors. I finally started getting back into the world when I attended a Christian singles weekend camp in nearby New Castle, in June of 1994. I got involved with Christian singles groups in Grand Junction for several years. I did start to learn how to love my neighbor as I loved myself, but I did not love myself very much. To most people the simple life I have chosen would seem like a life of drudgery, but to me it is easy as pie. I have always been a hard worker and greatly enjoy the life I have chosen. I have the advantage of being able to live my life the way I feel is best for me, without any consideration for what the world thinks about it. The major change in my life has nothing to do with where or how I live. The major change in my life is the spiritual life I now have, it is the reason behind this blog. I don’t expect to convince people that they should adopt my beliefs. We each need to develop our own set of beliefs, based on the good set of rules that are in our hearts. Each person needs a little different set of beliefs because we were each made different, went through different things and need different things to make us complete. That is why you will never find a church or religion that is right for you alone. Most of the articles on the weblog are about the simple spiritual truths I have found and applied to my life with great success. Just because the are so great and easy for me it doesn’t mean they are right or will work for you, but I feel they might be helpful to get you thinking and acting on your own. My biggest concern is that people will decide to make up a phony set of rules based on what they feel like instead of what is right. If you are like I was, the set of good rules in my heart were too much in line with what the world said was acceptable, instead of what I knew was right deep down inside of me. The bottom line of this web site is it is OK to live your own spiritual life as you please, but if you think that gives you complete freedom, you could end up like, “The Son of Sam.”