Finding your own mountaintop (hopefully hermit free)

I sometimes am jealous of the hermit lifestyle – the solitude, the peace, the lack of technology. Just you and your mountaintop. There are certain days when I have way too much going on at once, days when that sounds like just about the most wonderful existence on Earth.

But as much as that lifestyle might appeal to me from time to time, I have to admit that technology has me in its talons, and it's not letting me go.

Let's review the notes.

I'm typing this column on a computer. I'm listening to my iPod while I'm typing this column on a computer. I'm listening to electronic music on my iPod while I'm typing this column on a computer. I'm surfing the Web while listening to electronic music on my iPod while I'm procrastinating from typing my column on a computer.

If I lived on a mountaintop, I could do none of these things. (Except for procrastinate, of course – "I'll get to meditating in a second. I just need to look at this rock for a little longer.")

We live in an age when we're surrounded by lighted monitors, blinking lights, honking horns, ringing cell phones, all demanding our attention throughout the day. But going off to a mountaintop simply isn't an option for many of us, especially in Illinois, which is much more adept at making mountains out of molehills rather than giant boulders.

But while we can't retreat to a mountaintop, there certainly still are places to get away from it – a golf course, a nature preserve, a decent reading room in a library. They might not be mountaintops, but at least they're close to home. Just remember to leave your cell phones in your car.