Ben Hewitt is a farmer writer, an epitome of that elusive species that I wanted so bad to exist in the Philippines. He inspired me to attempt to live by myself at the house in Sta. Barbara when it wasn’t developed yet. That experiment ultimately failed, but I learned more from Ben. I was moved by his writing in his book about money, Saved. Since then, I have been following his vignettes at benhewitt.net.

His writing is something I have long since admired. I think I have never said it to any writer before what I said about his writing: I want to be able to write like he does.