The great book that inspired me to be a hermit

What came to my mind when hearing the word “hermit” was an old man with long white moustache, beard and hair, who wore dirty white garment all day. And his life, I reckoned, must have been so boring.

After reading Tonke Dragt’s book, which is entitled The Letter for the King, or De brief voor de koning in Dutch, I still imagine the same old man when hearing the word, but now… I don’t think it is that boring anymore.
I even fancy it will be perhaps fascinating.

The old hermit in the book, whose name I forgot, lived on a top of a mountain. He lived in a wooden cabin near a spring and amidst fresh, cool air of a mountaintop, which was sometimes misty.

I always love nature; so even though in a whole Mr. Dragt made a wonderful, very well written adventurous story, my most favorite part remains the life of the hermit, who helped Tiuri the main character, a knight candidate, to climb and ascend to the other side of the mountain, where a neighboring kingdom Tiuri was heading to was in existence (Tiuri did his adventure to give the confidential letter to the king).

Mr. Dragt made very well description of the mountain top that I could sense the fresh, cool air and misty surrounding, that I could see bushes on the infertile brown ground of the mountaintop, although in fact I was reading the book in my stuffy room in the hot and humid two-season Jakarta suburb of Tangerang.

The old hermit was actually the brother of the neighboring king, but he avoided conflicts and resided on the mountain top, which is peaceful and quiet, with a 14-year-old orphan boy, that he had raised, helping him rearing goats, etc.

Why have I been enchanted with such life? Well, if you’re stuck in the traffic, exposed to overheating sunshine and smell dirty, polluted air every day in your life, you’ll no wonder why I wish I could settle on a fresh-aired top of a mountain.

But, not just that, if you frequently face conflicts, and you’re tortured by the fact that the conflicts, whatever they are, will continue happening, while you always have to get stuck in the middle of them…well, you’ll perhaps understand why I wish to runaway to a place where there is nobody that can make the conflicts; to a peaceful, quiet place as the old hermit lived at.

The risk of having such solitary life is that of course you lose contacts with the people you love. But, if that’s worth it, why not?

Anyway, things have yet to get so bad that I have to flee to a mountain top; that’s why I’m still here, breathing Jakarta’s dirty air and being exposed to the overheating sunshine, and facing and being stuck in the middle of the never ending conflicts.
And I think, too, about how irresponsible I am to runaway from problems when perhaps I can do something for other people who need my help (hey, how big-hearted I am!).

But, by reading the book, at least now I know where to go when I can’t handle those conflicts, when the situation become so torturing that I can’t stand it anymore.

The only thing I have to prepare for such life is learning how to climb a mountain, and learning to depend on myself only, to be independent, especially in supplying my own everyday need like foods, etc.

By the way, this is not at all a review of the book, which recently won an award for best Dust children’s book, so I’m sorry to disappoint you who think this is a review. It’s just my commentary, originated from the strongest impression I feel for the book: The Letter for the King. You indeed made a good job, Mr. Dragt, congratulation!