What would lead a person to choose to live alone for a year on a small, remote island off the coast of southern Chile? How would one even go about planning the enormous logistics of such a stay? What is it like to truly notice how, as humans, we are constantly shifting from a sense of isolation into the experience of freedom and belonging? What was most challenging about basically disappearing into the wilderness, and living in solitude for a full year. With total candor Kull shares the pains and joys of such an adventure. Besides facing the elements, he had to face his inner demons. He says, “I’d love to be a heroic figure, man against nature kind of thing. But that is not my story. My story is going out and try to move beyond that, and become part of the non-human world and part of myself. But I can’t pull it off because my wilderness journal is just full of whining. It would be wonderful and joyful, and I’d be giving thanks for being there, and then the pain would come crashing in. And, instead of having any equanimity, I’d just be moaning and whining. That was the thing I was facing about myself that I didn’t like. There was not much of a sense of nobility much of the time around it.”
