I have just finished reading Joan Baxter’s book ‘The Hermit of Gully Lake’, 2nd edition. It is a remarkable story. Sympathetically written and researched. It raises several questions.
The first is a technical one. What have been the changes, if any, between the first and second edition ? I am now trying to track down a copy of the first edition through the Library.
The second is more philosophical. As a Geographer, we talk a lot about ‘a sense of place’. What does a sense of place mean to a hermit? What was special about Gully Lake? Can any place be a ‘special place’ or hermitage?
Willard Kitchener MacDonald ‘jumped from a troop train to avoid going off to battle in World War II and lived for more than half a century in the woods around Earltown in northern Nova Scotia’ p.7.
At about 2 pm on June 27,2004 they found the remains of a ‘deceased elderly man in a wooded area on the east side of Gully Lake’. p.133.
In her epilogue, Baxter quotes the refrain from a song ‘Let him be’ by Dave Gunning and John Meir. I was able to find it online on their CD Two-bit World.
Checking my bookcase, I rediscovered The True Solitude. selections from the Writings of Thomas Merton. Here is an unspeakable secret writes Father Merton.
“Paradise is all around us and we do not understand. It is wide open. The sword is taken away, but we do not know it: we are off ‘one to his farm’ and ‘another to his merchandise’…..’Wisdom’ cries the dawn deacon, but we do not attend’. From the inside of the back cover.
See ”Day of a Stranger” a meditation describes his way of life as a hermit “.
Acknowledgements
Edward added the links and graphics. Heather shares the journey.
References
Joan Baxter, 2021, The Hermit of Gully Lake: The Life and Times of Willard Kitchener MacDonald, 2nd. Edition, Pottersfield Press.
Dean Walley selections 1969. From the writings of Thomas Merton. The True Solitude. Hallmark Editions.
Dave Gunning and John Meir, Let Him Be, On their CD Two-bit World.
Postscript
I also unearthed Thomas Raddall The Dreamers published by Pottersfield Press in 1986. More light reading.
Tomorrow is Register-Reader day !
Ernest Blair Experiment 
Bob
Thanks.
Hope you have someplace cool to be. No AC here….
Brian
Brian Arnott Principal Novita Interpares | Leaf + Branch
novitainterpares.ca >
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I was interested to note your reference to Thomas Merton. I have recently read On the brink of Everything by Parker J Palmer – a book on ageing. Palmer is a Quaker and is a big fan of Merton. His book is Ok, a bit light and rambling and very American but an interesting read.
P
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This morning, I found the first edition, 2005.I will compare with the second edition, 2021.we walked into Lawrencetown for breakfast.
Please note graphics and links added to the blog.
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