Thoreau

It's the birthday of Henry David Thoreau, who sought his identity in the natural world.

In Walden, Thoreau writes: “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.” WA

People often assume that Thoreau went out into the wilderness to write his famous treatise on nature, but in fact, he was living less than two miles from the village of Concord. He had regular dinners with friends, continued to do odd jobs for the Emersons, and had frequent visitors.... In the conclusion to Walden, Thoreau wrote, "I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." WA

Best books ever inspired by HDT, in my opinion, are the children's books by D.B. Johnson... especially Henry Works.

 

Do Nothing For One Minute

Take a minute, turn up the volume as we check out a full moon setting over Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Videographer: Scot Miller. https://t.co/ECjZJTLdGd pic.twitter.com/AvLJflQTax

— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) July 14, 2019

	Maria Popova (@brainpicker)
7/12/19, 11:29 AM “We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.” Thoreau—one of the deepest, furthest seers our civilization has produced, born 202 years ago today—on seeing vs. knowing and what it takes to really apprehend reality unblinded by our preconceptions brainpickings.org/2018/02/07/tho…