"Dugout Dick", Died recently at age 94, Idaho's last of the River-Canyon Loners

I'm beginning a series on what it's like to be alone, which to some earns you a title as a "loner". As destiny would have it, I went to check my Yahoo personal's account, and found this article. It touched me deeply, as I am both, a loner and a guy that wants friends and lovers. At the moment I am pretty much a loner again. I may die that way, have no idea. Before I tell you more about me, the goal of my blog, after all, let's take a moment and give Dugout Dick a few moments of our time. See, he represents many things to many people... to some he's a non-conformist, and exactly the kind of person a capitalistic society doesn't need. To others he represents what's possible in America... freedom to live one's life as they chose, as long as they don't harm others.

A part of me as I suggested makes me wish I wasn't so entangled in my own web, that I could actually live out my next 30 - 50 years like Dugout Dick. Another part of me wants to build off of what I became in the mid to late 70's, then lost...

There are a lot of dynamics in life, no-matter where one lives. We're not truly "FREE" in America, no, we're not, but, we have options here that many in the world don't have. Education is a key to finding and using those options. But education in and of itself is not the key... one doesn't have to have a college degree to survive, to be happy. Rather, it's the heart and desire to learn, to learn to survive, and to survive in a way that satisfies one's soul that's important. And teaching that, especially in HS where the status quo and state regulations dictate learning, it's pretty difficult to develop one's own life. Was Dugout Dick really a loner? Or did he find true happiness?

Link to picture and story here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/23/1164899/death-of-caveman-ends-an-era-in.html