Flower photos

Spiney Spiderplant

Indian shot

Crape myrtle

Hydrangea 

Coneflower 

Petunia

Hydrangea 

Mary Oliver

Lived 1935-2019. She was born in Ohio. Her first book came out in 1963. She worked for the estate of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Her wife Molly Malone Cook of 40 years died of cancer in 2005. Born in Ohio, she lived in Provincetown RI, and Florida, among other places. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for American Primitive, which seems to be a collection because the copyright has 6 dates. It's her 5th book.

The Fawn

Sunday morning and mellow as precious metal

The church bells rang, but I went

To the woods instead.

A fawn, too new

For fear, rose from the grass

And stood with its spots blazing,

And knowing no way but words,

No trick but music,

I sang to him.

He listened.

His small hooves struck the grass.

Oh what is holiness?

The fawn came closer,

Walked to my hands, to my knees.

I did not touch him.

I only sang, and when the doe came back

Calling out to him dolefully

And he turned and followed her into the trees,

Still I sang,

Not knowing how to end such a joyful text,

Until far off the bells once more tipped and tumbled

And rang through the morning, announcing

The going forth of the blessed.

                    -- Mary Oliver from Twelve Moons (1979)

This poem feels Transcendental to me because she's not going to church, she is finding the sacred in nature. 

Above From Blue Horses (2014)

Above and below from Felicity (2015)

Above and below from A Thousand Mornings (2012)

From Twelve Moons (1979), her 4th book.

So I'm reading all her slim volumes from the library. I check out her omnibus, and it felt overwhelming, too big. It's quite fun and I'm really enjoying it, but there's a sad little bit today:

4. Of The Father

He wanted a body

  so he took mine.

Some wounds never vanish.

Yet little by little

I learn to love my life.

Though sometimes I had to run hard--

  especially from melancholy--

not to be held back.

(p. 40-1 A Thousand Mornings)

Links:

Wikipedia entry on Mary Oliver

Maria Shriver Interviews the Famously Private Poet Mary Oliver 

"Maria Shriver: What about a favorite poet? 

Mary Oliver: I suppose it would have to be Whitman, unless it's Rumi or Hafiz. And I do love Emerson's poetry. And of course I named my dog Percy after Shelley. And how could anybody not love Keats."

page 2

page 3

On Being Podcast with Mary Oliver

Appreciation post

Wild Geese (read by Tom Hiddleston) on YouTube

The Pond

I've posted photos of her poems before.

Marginalia: Mary Oliver on Time, Concentration, the Artist’s Task, and the Central Commitment of the Creative Life

Other thoughts: I'm reading Baudelaire, and of course whatever other poems you're reading throw light on the other poet you're reading. "He coined the term modernity (modernité) to designate the fleeting experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the responsibility of artistic expression to capture that experience." He is considered the first modernist. Oliver caught the fleeting experience of going for a walk in nature. Baudelaire talks about a drunkenness about living, and Oliver tries to have intense experiences through her art as well.  

“Be always drunken. Nothing else matters: that is the only question. If you would not feel the horrible burden of Time weighing on your shoulders and crushing you to the earth, be drunken continually. Drunken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will. But be drunken. And it sometimes, on the stairs of a palace, or on the green side of a ditch, or in the dreary solitude of your own room, you should awaken and the drunkenness be half or wholly slipped away from you, ask of the wind, or of the wave, or of the star, or of the bird, or of the clock, of whatever flies, or sighs, or rocks, or sings, or speaks, ask what hour it is; and the wind, wave, star, bird, clock, will answer you; "It is the hour to be drunken! Be drunken, if you would not be martyred slaves of Time; be drunken continually! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will."

“I love thee, infamous city! Harlots and Hunted have pleasures of their own to give, The vulgar herd can never understand.”

Poems:

Pink Moon--The Pond

You think it will never happen again.

Then, one night in April,

the tribes wake trilling.

You walk down to the shore.

Your coming stills them,

but little by little the silence lifts

until song is everywhere

and your soul rises from your bones

and strides out over the water.

It is a crazy thing to do –

for no one can live like that,

floating around in the darkness

over the gauzy water.

Left on the shore your bones

keep shouting come back!

But your soul won’t listen;

in the distance it is sparkling

like hot wires. So,

like a good friend,

you decide to follow.

You step off the shore

and plummet to your knees –

you slog forward to your thighs

and sink to your cheekbones –

and now you are caught

by the cold chains of the water –

you are vanishing while around you

the frogs continue to sing, driving

their music upward through your own throat,

not even noticing

you are someone else.

And that’s when it happens –

you see everything

through their eyes,

their joy, their necessity;

you wear their webbed fingers;

your throat swells.

And thats when you know

you will live whether you will or not,

one way or another,

because everything is everything else,

one long muscle.

It’s no more mysterious than that.

So you relax, you don’t fight it anymore,

the darkness coming down

called water,

called spring,

called the green leaf, called

a woman’s body

as it turns into mud and leaves,

as it beats in its cage of water,

as it turns like a lonely spindle

in the moonlight, as it says

yes.

8/15/23. I've read 4 of her books, have 2 on my pile, and have about 34 books left to read.

Rewards of being single

I really like The Marginalia, and she posted about Alcott being single her whole life.

Thoreau's listening to his own inner voice leads perhaps to an unconventional life that doesn't attract a mate. 

I find it amazing that I was basically in a relationship from 16-53. I really like being single, and I'm not really seeing the appeal of online dating, or maybe I want to be single longer. 

In buddhism, monks a celibate. It's considered beneficial to not have romantic and sexual relationships on the path. The Buddha said it was better to stick your dick into the mouth of a snake than it was to put it in a woman. It's not something they lead with and the path of Buddhism isn't a prescriptive morality, it's not against sex for people not on the path. And there are some highly evolved house holders, people who were not monks. But it's just easier if you can let go of that.

I struggle relinquishing the mating mind. I judge women's bodies, fantasize and yearn for intimate release.

Thoreau doesn't really talk like that, and we don't know much about his sexual life.

Links:

Thoreau's sexuality: "Although Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) has often been described as lacking in sexual drive or at most a rather reluctant heterosexual, a close study of his life and writings indicates the presence of a pronounced vein of homoeroticism--although there seems to be no concrete evidence of any homosexual activity on his part."

I tend to think he took friendships with young men quite seriously, but that doesn't mean there was no sexual element. Sexuality is intertwined in us, overlapping with many things. He certainly was a great teacher and friend. 

In those days there were not all these provocative flesh exposure, it was probably easier in those days to be celibate.

Laying Flatism is a weird name for being single.

Spotted Lantern flies

I see them on my walk to Willow Lake, and I try to kill them. I'm not sure invasive species need to always be killed, but their initial insertion needs to be fought.

They were first spotted in 2014 (source). "...it zealously feeds on the sap of more than 70 plant species, leaving them susceptible to disease and destruction from other natural antagonists, threatening to set back the fight against climate change." (NY Times)

"The last time the city faced a threat of this kind was approximately 15 years ago, when the Asian long-horned beetle made its incursions, having entered the country in wooden packing materials. Half of the trees in New York were vulnerable to it, and the invasion resulted in a huge deforestation. First sighted in Brooklyn in 1996, the beetle wasn’t fully eradicated from the city until 23 years later." (NY Times)

"...all of the sudden interest in the spotted lanternfly is simply another indication of our blinkered approach to managing our ecosystem, singling out one villain when we ought to be thinking holistically. “Because we have a wine industry in New York State, there’s a lot of concern,” she said. “As soon as there’s a commercial dollar sign involved, there’s attention. But there are a lot of invasive plants in New York City that are more destructive.”" (op cit)

Links

USDA

NY Times

Reddit

The Brink

9/21/24 Update:

NY Times

"Spotted lanternflies, which are native to parts of Asia, were first detected in the United States in 2014 in eastern Pennsylvania. The insects pose no danger to humans, but they are agricultural pests, feeding on the sap of grape vines, fruit trees and other plants. They are also hardy travelers."

"“The invasion wave, as we call it, has dissipated somewhat,” said José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ecologist at Rutgers University."

"Over the last few years, some birds, spiders and wasps might have learned that lanternflies could make a tasty meal; these predators might now be helping to keep the lanternfly population in check, establishing a new ecological equilibrium. “I think they’re just integrating into our ecosystem,” Ms. Moore said of the lanternflies."

"In some places, the masses of lanternflies might also simply have moved on after chewing through their favorite foods. That might explain why the numbers appear to have fallen in Manhattan but not on Staten Island, where plants are more plentiful."

"This year’s reduced numbers might also be a temporary blip. Maybe climate conditions were less favorable for the bugs this year. Or perhaps the city will see the population boom, bust and then boom again over multiple years. “My gut would tell me that we’re probably going to see some type of a cyclical pattern develop,” Mr. Logue said."

Grapes of Wrath quote

"There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our successes. The fertle Earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And the children dying of (hunger) must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificates - died of malnutrition - because the food must rot (if not sold at a profit)....and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."

Thoreau's cabin

He began building April 1845. It was torn down after he left, but you can see the site. He bought the wood from the Irish railroad laborers for $4.25. They used dirt for their insulation so he cleaned the boards and dried them on the beach. He planted crops. He would go home to the Thoreau family house less than a mile away at night. The first day after he'd dug the foundation was an old fashioned building party, and many came to help him begin to build. Maybe the first tiny house. 

Replica:

Emerson said civilized people didn't live in a shanty. Thoreau saw it as a home. His sisters worried about him. They brought him some food, and he wasn't happy they did that. (I'm reading Walls' biography so that is my source.)

I wonder how much he wanted to get away from being cared for by his lovely sisters. How much he wanted to be self reliant. To live a minimalist lifestyle and yet focus his attention. 

Links:

Thoreau's Cabin Site

Photos of a replica built

Richard Smith

Thoreau's Leaves: The Journal read.

Thoreau wrote a poem called Walden:

WALDEN

True, our converse a stranger is to speech;

Only the practiced ear can catch the surging words

That break and die upon thy pebbled lips.

Thy flow of thought is noiseless as the lapse of thy own waters,

Wafted as is the morning mist up from thy surface,

So that the passive Soul doth breathe it in,

And is infected with the truth thou wouldst express.

E'en the remotest stars have come in troops

And stooped low to catch the benediction

Of thy countenance. Oft as the day came round,

Impartial has the sun exhibited himself

Before thy narrow skylight; nor has the moon

For cycles failed to roll this way

As oft as elsewhither, and tell thee of the night.

No cloud so rare but hitherward it stalked,

And in thy face looked doubly beautiful.

O! tell me what the winds have writ for the last thousand years

On the blue vault that spans thy flood,

Or sun transferred and delicately reprinted

For thy own private reading. Somewhat

Within these latter days I've read,

But surely there was much that would have thrilled the Soul,

Which human eye saw not.

I would give much to read that first bright page,

Wet from a virgin press, when Eurus, Boreas,

And the host of airy quill-drivers

First dipped their pens in mist.

Source. Love the use of elsewither and hitherward. 

Birth of Transcendentalism

Facebook post by Richard Smith that explains it better than I can.

Emmerson ruffled the petticoats at Harvard with his graduation address at Harvard July 15 1838, some consider to be the foundation of Transcendentalism in America. 

Emerson was the center of the movement, an essayist, benefactor, publisher. His shucking off Puritainism for Nature was pure genius in early America. It's hard to be upstanding and righteous when you reject the religious ethos of the times. It was also hard to be for abolitionism, but he was. Over all cool dude on the right side of history. 

I read Emerson among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrait by Carlos Baker, and quite enjoyed it. I recommend it. 

I like "Self Reliance" and I've listened to Nature. I need to learn more about his writings. 

Railroads

In June 1944 the railroad functioned in Concord with 4 trains a day to and from Boston, 8 in total. As he sat in his white pine home, he could hear the train go past 8 times every day.

My sons loved Thomas The Tank Engine and watched hours and hours of it growing up in the 00's, the noughties. 

"What demon possessed me that I behaved so well."

 

"Thoreau found alienation oddly liberating" is a proposition of the biography by Walls.

I am fairly alienated. I've washed up in middle to late middle life with a daughter to take care, difficulty finding work, and my partner left me, and it's not easy dating really poor. I've also been fairly attractive, I realize that now, and a tubby middle aged man, isn't quite as lucky. I feel pretty authentic and true to my ideals, I express my truth, but it got me fired after 3 days in one job I had, and quickly a new girlfriend dumped me.

My friend copies my blog posts into ChatGPT and then regurgitates it back to me in poetry, playing with the various options. It's kind of funny but weird, and he didn't tell me, I had to guess, which was difficult because I didn't want to offend him if he really wrote them. He says that's the modern issue, you don't want to accuse people. He's retired and does edibles, and plays with ChatGPT. Sends me videos of him dancing on the beach. He's the one I've done so much backpacking, canoeing and camping. 

I've been thinking a lot about how with no clear thing, pleasure becomes the guiding principle. The problem is aiming for pleasure, is that often unpleasurable sections create pleasure. Pleasure is the result of something but when you target it, it evaporates quite a lot. Pleasure is derived also from pain in a yin and yang of life. I took a class on Taoism and really enjoy it, but think it's shamanism, there is no creed really, though there is some metaphysical palaver. Shamanism is great because you can develop your own truths, and you can reject all the other truths society tries to put onto you. I think Hinduism is so large there is room for shamanism, so you can get J. Krishnamurti quotes like this: "It is a waste of energy when we try to conform to a pattern. To conserve energy, we must be aware of how we dissipate energy." There's a Hindu ashram in Encinitas where my friend lives. He uses the bathroom on long runs.

Part of the eruption of joy watching soccer is built on boring hours of passing the ball around, the fight for possession. Part of the joy of opera is long endless arias that don't strike you. Part of the joy of jazz is after hours of garbled near chaos, there's some clarity, a riff that does make sense. He does take breaks from edibles and runs, which is something we also used to do together. We would run to Coney Island, jump in the ocean, and eat a hotdog and take the subway back. Talking running is great, and we would have great conversations. He calls me when he's on a run and sometimes I go for a walk to talk to him. He helps me relate to my ex who is angry and difficult in my experience of her, and has legitimate grievances. I'm sure it's all my fault, is a kind of mantra that doesn't help.

"What demon possessed me that I behaved so well." When you reject behaving well, it's hard to fold back into society. I do quite enjoy solitude, so I'm OK with being alone a lot in a crowded city. I'm friendly and would talk to anyone. Spending hours in the park watching my daughter, I get bored and just talk to everyone. I live in an immigrant neighborhood, and I really love learning about all over the world. I read about China, Ukraine and Latin America. I recently met a fellow who was the son of a Iranian diplomat, and stayed. He opened for Ramones and Iggy Pop, but his band broke up on the brink of a record contract. He sells rugs now. He went to Billy Joel's house, to install some rugs.

I really enjoy being thrifty. Being poor is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint. I see myself as a bachelor for the rest of my life. I love nature, and thinking and writing. Thoreau had the women in his life to take care of him, and he would go wandering and exploring and rough it.

Thoreau didn't have high quality spiritual practitioners to distinguish between the various traditions of the east, and might have seen them all of one. I'm not sure if he had the keys to unlock Buddhism the way I did. 

I don't like the Beat writers now, they're almost as bad writers as Transcendentalists, but they too hard a kind of spirit to them that I appreciate, and I enjoy the drama of the literary scene. 

Willow lake is my Walden pond. I meditate, but it's overgrown now, and the bugs get to me. They're building a drainage down there, and there are surveyors there every day, with ribbons on trees, I hope they don't cut them down. Cutting down trees really hurts me, I love trees so much.

Yesterday when I took these photos, I was thinking about mental formations. One of the instructions in anapanasati is to calm mental formations. I really like to excite my mental formations. Sitting so many years in meditation digs out these insights, there's always a counter force to every aspect of the path. 

I've been to Walden pond. Next time I go, if I go again, I'll do some hikes now that I know more about them.

I'm in the Walden section of the biography of Thoreau. 

Thoreau day

July 12 is the day Thoreau was born in 1817. He would be 206 today.

Reading the biography today:

Thoreau took a hike around and met Channing in Pittsfield. He slept rough and had adventures he didn’t write about. 

Back in Concord Emerson came out against slavery after meeting Frederick Douglas (1817-1895). Douglas's birth year is uncertain, so he may be the same age as Thoreau or a year younger. 

Isaac Hecker befriended Thoreau and invited him to travel with him in Europe. Thoreau declined. The first thought that comes to my mind was his mother's thriftiness. He probably couldn't imagine spending that much money on himself. In his travels with Channing he looked pretty wild on the boat mixing among the ladies and gentlemen. 

Climate Change

I think these whack jobs in politics that are into distracting culture wars are really working hard to ward of climate anxiety. The greater denial, the larger the toll the mind is that it disconnects from reality. Not totally. But more so. 

I read that the more oppression of women, the more the society uses denial to cope with the horrors of oppression. 

It's pretty dire, but you can channel your emotions towards good. Read the New Yorker article by Jia Tolentino. It's brilliant writing as it flows from the personal to the subjective to the science of climate change, and one person's journey to try and channel his feelings.

"Still, Davenport’s advice about the Serenity Prayer reminded me of Andreas Malm’s assessment, in his book “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” that the climate movement thus far has been “gentle and mild in the extreme.” The luxury I had of pondering my emotions at length was evidence of how much closer I was to the problem than to the solution: climate change’s worst effects will always fall on the poor and disenfranchised, both locally and globally, and in this context it was hard to believe that the project of teaching the world’s most fortunate people how to feel was more than another form of self-absorption. I wondered whether I was getting the wrong lessons, however right they seemed."

There are great examples of organizations started, like Kids for Kids in Manila. They would raise money for typhoon impacted kids. That is an excellent example of how to channel your climate anxiety. Or perhaps write a brilliant article in the New Yorker that inspires people. I sent it to my children. Who knows who's going to be triggered to come up with a brilliant organization to channel emotions. 

Tolentino mentions the orange haze in New York, where she writes. She has lovely quotes:

Learning to Die in the Anthropocene by Roy Scranton: “We can continue acting as if tomorrow will be just like yesterday, growing less and less prepared for each new disaster as it comes, and more and more desperately invested in a life we can’t sustain. Or we can learn to see each day as the death of what came before, freeing ourselves to deal with whatever problems the present offers without attachment or fear.”

I really feel like this article provided some therapy on me, allows me to read this article:

Guardian: why climate tribalism only helps the deniers

"The nuclear zealots want to go all-in on building new power stations. The renewable zealots want no nuclear at all. Some promote electric cars; their opponents want car-less roads. Vegans advocate for cutting out animal products; flexitarians feel judged when they eat their weekly roast chicken."

"These cracks can start at an even higher level. For some it is not about the specific technology we deploy, it’s about the fact that we see technology as a solution at all. There are those who believe that technology will fix everything. Their detractors think this techno-optimism is naive; only radical economic and social change can save us."

"The American economist Michael Munger wrote about this very same tension in economic policy, describing how the world is split into “directionalists” and “destinationists”. Directionalists back any solution that takes us towards the final goal."

"Destinationists are less flexible: they have an ideal outcome in mind. They block and reject anything that doesn’t fit their perfect vision. If they want to see a car-less world, they push against electric vehicles (EVs), even if they would cut emissions by a lot."

"Destinationalism is a problem. Sure, we all have our favourite solutions. But the reality is that we can’t afford to be choosy. The answer to almost every climate dilemma is “We need both”. We need renewables and nuclear energy (even if that means just keeping our existing nuclear plants online). We need to tackle fossil fuels and our food system; fossil fuels are the biggest emitter, but emissions from food alone would take us well past 1.5C (34.7F) and close to 2C (35.6F). Not everyone can commute without a car, so we need electric vehicles and cycle-friendly cities and public transport networks. We can’t decarbonise without technological change, but we need to rethink our economic, political and social systems to make sure they flourish."

"we need to be honest about what is and isn’t true about the solutions we don’t like. “EVs emit just as much CO2 as petrol cars” is simply wrong. They emit significantly less, even if they emit more than the subway or a bike (and yes, this is still true when we account for the emissions needed to produce the battery). “Nuclear energy is unsafe” is wrong – it’s thousands of times safer than the coal we’re trying to replace, and just as safe as renewables. It’s fine to advocate for your preferred solutions, but it’s not OK to lie about the alternatives to make your point."

Some good book recommendations:

A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World by Katharine Hayhoe 

Speed and Scale: A Global Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now by John Doerr

Wildfire

On April 1845, Thoreau was with Edward Hoar and they were on the river. They pulled over and started a fire to cook some fish, but the fire got out of hand. The fire raged quite a lot, and in the end the whole town turned out to battle the fire. Thoreau was mortified, and couldn't write about it for 5 years in his journal. Forest fires were an issue in those days and this wasn't the first or the last forest fire that threatened Concord. He imagine collective action, where the town would have a volunteer fire department.

One farmer had cut 60 cords of wood to sell, and it burned in the conflagration. His daughter would never forgive him. She would go to school with charcoal smudge because when she collected wood, there was so much burnt wood. Some would hold it against him, but others would recognize that him not hiding and telling everyone immediately was a good move. It ended up being 100-150 acres burnt. The newspaper estimated $2k worth of damages, a huge sum in those times. Because Edward Hoar was Samuel Hoar's son the incident was downplayed. 

When it came out when his unpublished journal was read by a journalist, he was against chastised for pretending to love nature. And in this day and age when people find out about it they can be shocked. I was shocked the first time I heard about it. This nature lover was careless and started a wildfire. 

Thoreau was hard on himself for the incident. He expresses guilt, shame and regret, but also beauty at the powerful force of nature. He saw humans as part of nature, and similar to lightning when it comes to starting forest fires. A force of nature. 

There's a kind of sharp talk when you go camping about having campfires. Usually they have metal or rock pits to help contain the fire. Getting humans to really grok the potential of spreading fire isn't easy. 

In a way, they are unavoidable, if you prevent them, the load of fuel in woods increases, and just lead to bigger fires later. 

There are currently wildfires in Canada that impact New York City where I live. There was that day where the sky was orange and you could look at the sun. (One, two)

When I was a little kid growing up in Madison Wisconsin, I was unsupervised, I played outside quite a lot, and would start leaf pile fires. I'm so glad nothing ever came of it. I played with fires as a 4 and 5 year old. When my parents smelled it near the house, I just moved my fire making to the woods around Eagle Heights and University Housing. I would push together leaves and then set them on fire. Luckily nothing ever spread. 

Later when I was training to be a social worker psychotherapist, I saw on an assessment that they asked if the child ever set fires. I felt horrible for a moment, but then realized setting fires in the city is a different thing that a kid setting small fires in the woods. And yet I knew the instinct of being curious about fires. I've taken my sons camping and they liked the fires quite a lot, I think fascination with fires in a natural thing. The destruction of fire is very important to understand a child. It's one of those things it's hard to understand, or get an understanding without experience. Thoreau certainly was adult enough to understand what he had done, and must have been mortified. The town may have judged him, but he was honest about it and sought help. 

Edward Hoar would go on to be a district attorney in California from 1850-1857. 

The danger of fire is shown by this nature loving and mindful Thoreau causing one. I am really lucky that none of my fires got out of hand. I could see a gust of wind and dry weeds spreading the fire fast. You really have to think about these things. 

I think wildfires as a metaphor for the spread of misinformation is also interesting. 

Thoreau would wander through the burnt woods and see things grow back. Native Americans would sometimes start controlled fires as part of land management. 

NYC forbids even attempting controlled burns inside the city limits. There was a fire down by Willow pond, which was small and contained, I thought it was a controlled burn, but it wasn't. It grew back pretty quickly. No larger than a baseball infield.

Things are different out west where it sometimes doesn't rain a lot. There are almost deserts. I'd be a lot more careful with fire in a desert, really make sure the fire pit is lined, and watch sparks that fly off. Make sure the fire is really small and banked when you go to bed, I'd probably pour water over it if I had extra. 

In Concord, the effected area was quickly green again. Thoreau was surprised at how quickly nature snapped back. I remember driving out west in a park where a wildfire didn't snap back the arid landscape. Again, I think things are different everywhere and you should know where you are. Fire out west is different. 

Then there's the Chicago fire in 1871. They even name the local soccer team fire. 

One of my many part time jobs was to be a fire marshal. I worked in at a bible society when they were cleaning out the tanks on the roof, and I would walk around a building watching out for fire. Since the library had many priceless bibles they had tanks on the roof that would quickly squash out any fires. It was a regular office building and there shouldn't be any fires anyway, but you know humans, they're a force of nature, unpredictable. Pretty quickly the tanks were cleaned and my job was over. NYC is considered a Sodom but there's a bible society with a library and displays in NYC. There are endlessly preachers trying to save the secular society. Thoreau had a secular preacher's kind of ferver about self development. 

Reading the news today (7/11/23), there's a wildfire in Wisconsin. (Source, source, source)

Civil Disobedience

When you ask people what they know about Henry David Thoreau, this is what they cite most, Civil Disobedience. He influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

After coming back from Staten Island, Wendell Phillips spoke again in Concord, and Thoreau was beginning to see the importance of resting unjust laws.

The cause is slavery. His method of protest would be to not pay taxes to a corrupt government. There was no federal tax in those days. 

I'm thinking about how people feel like it's going to far to fight animal slaughter. There are vigilantes who take videos of slaughter house, and one recently was closed down because of an expose video. When the information gets out there, things happen, but it's against the law to go in and video. That seems like a law that could be broken out of principle to convictions. 

Things can easily get out of control, and protesting can be about forces beyond control. Protests can be about sour grapes about losing a presidential election, that lead to death and injury. The right has whipped itself up into quite a grievance frenzy. I don't think it's righteous. It's weird because they're really getting their way quite a lot with the corrupt supreme court, gerrymandering, voter intimidation and other dirty tricks. Trump made it OK to be the smallest self, most greedy self, your most regressed and hateful self. That's his vision of America. Manifest destiny and rugged individualism is about nobody telling you what to do. It's hard to see virtue in these fights, but sticking up for one's political convictions isn't bad. I just think when you're fighting for public change, it should be about reaching higher, not the right to be lower. I'd rather have the freedom from Covid than the freedom to spread Covid. I'd rather have the freedom to not get shot up at school, instead of the right to shoot up schools. 

Was Trump the anti-social right's John Brown, with an estimated 40-80% of the deaths from Covid being attributed to his non-policy. 

Indeed Peter Singer thinks we should do more to help people, in his Famine Affluence and Morality article in 1971.

Greta Thunberg tried to blockade oil in Malmo (BBC). I'm a huge fan of hers, and think she's great. She could face up to 6 months in jail. I'm pretty sure she doesn't care. She's doing it for principles, and has a clear vision about the importance of addressing climate change.

There's also a big emphasis on what you can do, and not just talk about. He wasn't as into collective action, he seems to want people to fundamentally change themselves to make a better world.

I'd say taking spiritual turns to tune into yourself is a good first step. Being vegan is great. Reducing your carbon footprint is important. Personal jets are something that really gets me annoyed. Thoreau wasn't really into trying to reform others, he wanted you to reform yourself, it seems based on his annoyance of fantasies for developing society. 

Links:

15 Examples of Civil Disobedience

Letter from Henry to Sophia

July 8, 1860:

Dear Sophia,

Mother reminds me that I must write to you, if only a few lines, though I have sprained my thumb so that it is questionable whether I can write legibly, if at all. I can’t bear on much. What is worse, I believe that I have sprained my brain too—i.e it sympathizes with my thumb. But there is no excuse, I suppose, for writing a letter in such a case, is, like sending a newspaper, only a hint to let you know that “all is well”—but my thumb.

I hope that you begin to derive some benefit from that more mountainous air which you are breathing. Have you had a distinct view of the Franconia Notch ruts (blue peaks in the N horizon)? which I told you that you could get from the road in Campton, & probably from some other points nearer. Such a view of the mts is more memorable than any other.

Have you been to Squam Lake, or overlooked it—I should think that you could easily make an excursion to some mt in that direction from which you could see the lake & the mts generally.

I hear that John Brown, jr. has just come to Boston for a few days. Mr. Sanborn’s case, it is said, will come on after some murder cases have been disposed of—here.

I have just been invited, formally, to be present at the annual picnic of Theodore Parker’s society (that was) at Waverly next Wednesday, & to make some remarks. But that is wholly out of my line—I do not go to picnics even in Concord you know.

I suppose that you have heard that Mr. Hawthorne has come home. I went to meet him the other evening & found that he has not altered except that he was looking pretty brown after his voyage. He is as simple & child-like as ever.

I believe that I have fairly scared the kittens away, at last, by my pretended fierceness—which was humane merely & now I will consider my thumb—& your eyes,

Henry

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver (1935-2021) is considered a modern Transcendentalist or a neo-Transcendentalist.

Most poets aren’t into being put into boxes. She’s more than a label.

Jones Very

Season 3 Episode 6 of Dickinson they visit a mental institution, and that got me thinking about Jones Very. 

Jones Very (1813-1880) was a poet from Salem who went to Harvard, but was dismissed because he saw himself as the second coming of Christ. His mother, Lydia Very, was known for being an aggressive freethinker who made her atheistic beliefs known to all. She believed that marriage was only a moral arrangement and not a legal one. His father, also named Jones Very, was a captain during the War of 1812 and was held in Nova Scotia for a time by the British as a prisoner of war. When the younger Jones Very was 10, his father, by then a shipmaster, took him on a sailing voyage to Russia. A year later, his father had Very serve as a cabin boy on a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. His father died on the return trip, apparently due to a lung disease he contracted while in Nova Scotia.

Poems:

Nature

The bubbling brook doth leap when I come by,

Because my feet find measure with its call;

The birds know when the friend they love is nigh,

For I am known to them, both great and small.

The flower that on the lonely hillside grows

Expects me there when spring its bloom has given;

And many a tree and bush my wanderings knows,

And e'en the clouds and silent stars of heaven;

For he who with his Maker walks aright,

Shall be their lord as Adam was before;

Thy Better Self

I AM thy other self, what thou wilt be,

When thou art I, the one seest now;

In finding thy true self thou wilt find me,

The springing blade, where now thou dost but plough.

I am thy neighbor, a new house I've built,

Which thou as yet hast never entered in;

I come to call thee; come in when thou wilt,

The feast is always ready to begin.

Thou should'st love me, as thou dost love thyself,

For I am but another self beside;

To show thee him thou lov'st in better health,

What thou would'st be, when thou to him hast died;

Then visit me, I make thee many a call;

Nor live I near to thee alone, but all.

His ear shall catch each sound with new delight,

Each object wear the dress that then it wore;

And he, as when erect in soul he stood,

Hear from his Father's lips that all is good

Soul-Sickness

How many of the body's health complain,

When they some deeper malady conceal;

Some unrest of the soul, some secret pain,

Which thus its presence doth to them reveal.

Vain would we seek, by the physician's aid,

A name for this soul-sickness e'er to find;

A remedy for health and strength decayed,

Whose cause and cure are wholly of the mind

To higher nature is the soul allied,

And restless seeks its being's Source to know;

Finding not health nor strength in aught beside;

How often vainly sought in things below,

Whether in sunny clime, or sacred stream,

Or plant of wondrous powers of which we dream!

Emily Dickinson

(source)

You have to get a million streaming services. The trick is to get free trials and watch all the good shows quickly. On Apple TV, Dickinson is the weird ahistorical show to gobble up, 3 seasons. 

Emily Dickinson lived 1830-1886. She published a few poems but mostly wrote for her sister-in-law and others. 

The internet has created needy babies (me) who want to be fed. There is no webpage that has the poem featured in each episode. I could make millions if I created that and then monetized my site. Actually there's a wiki, and 

S3E2 has a page. What a find, it does exist. Not about poems, more like candid photos of the actresses getting dressed.

Alena Smith created this show. "Smith was drawn to the idea of “achieving the impossible within extreme confinement,” as Dickinson did, reinventing American verse from her bedroom. “Frustration has been a powerful engine of my career thus far and of this project. And it's definitely part of the character of Emily Dickinson,” she adds."

There are modern sentiments injected into the show, hip hop music, and whatnot. It's ahistorical. They look at the camera and talk. It's an ahistorical drama. Still, it's fun.

The Thoreau episode makes him about to be a dilettante fop, that's certainly one view of him, not mine. I like the naturalist, the poet, the essay writer, the revolutionary. I don't agree that we should only fix ourselves, we could also fix society too. I don't dislike New York. The pull of Puritanism isn't as strong for me, but if I'm honest, there is a weird undertow pull. Seeing clay feet is a sign of maturity to me, not just idealizing and denigrating, the good and the bad. We are all mixtures.

I've read through Dickinson's poems more than one, tried to read one book on the Gothic nature of her poetry, own a biography I neglect, and really really enjoy this show. She swam in the same New England waters as Thoreau. She was born a little later.

I don't know if they ever met or read each other. I doubt Thoreau read Emily's poems. I'll update as I learn.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson was a mentor to Dickinson.

“ Dickinson’s poems and letters mention roses, lilacs, peonies, sweet williams, daisies, foxgloves, poppies, nasturtiums and zinnias.” (Source)




Previous posts:

Dickinson




Links:

Wild Nights With Emily review in Vox.




Poems:

The way Hope builds his House
It is not with a sill –
Nor Rafter – has that Edifice
But only Pinnacle –

Abode in as supreme
This superficies
As if it were of Ledges smit
Or mortised with the Laws –





All the letters I can write
Are not fair as this—
Syllables of Velvet—
Sentences of Plush,
Depths of Ruby, undrained,
Hid, Lip, for Thee—
Play it were a Humming Bird—
And just sipped—me—






I started Early – Took my Dog –

And visited the Sea –

The Mermaids in the Basement

Came out to look at me –



And Frigates – in the Upper Floor

Extended Hempen Hands –

Presuming Me to be a Mouse –

Aground – opon the Sands –



But no Man moved Me – till the Tide

Went past my simple Shoe –

And past my Apron – and my Belt

And past my Boddice – too –



And made as He would eat me up –

As wholly as a Dew

Opon a Dandelion's Sleeve –

And then – I started – too –



And He – He followed – close behind –

I felt His Silver Heel

Opon my Ancle – Then My Shoes

Would overflow with Pearl –



Until We met the Solid Town –

No One He seemed to know –

And bowing – with a Mighty look –



At me – The Sea withdrew –

Abolitionism

It's always struck with me that Susan Cheever had a strong reaction to John Brown in her account of the Transcendentalists.

I'm reading today that Wendell Philips came to Concord again to talk, against the protests of some.

In a way, I think about Henry living with all the Thoreau women. Sophia Thoreau was a big abolitionist. Helen Thoreau had a collection of abolitionist clippings from newspapers, the equivalent of today would be a bunch of bookmarks. Favorite links.

Emerson and Thoreau were on the right side of history, but there names come way down in the long article on abolitionism in Wikipedia. 

Good Lord Bird is a good TV show about John Brown. Season 3 in Dickinson is the Civil War. 

Bonus link:

Hiking can be dangerous. Woman found stuck in mud for 3 days.

Leaves of Grass

Leaves of Grass was Published July 4th, 1855 by Walt Whitman, 168 years ago. 

Season 3 episode 4 of Dickinson's portrait is exaggerated, ahistorical, but anyway, they're just having fun in that show. What did Dickinson and Thoreau think of Whitman? I'll try and update here if I read anything. She show is kind of what if all the stars of the Transcendental movement were self involved influencers with today's consciousness. Still, it's fun.

“I am satisfied ... I see, dance, laugh, sing.”

“I am large, I contain multitudes”

“Do anything, but let it produce joy.”

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

“Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me?

And why should I not speak to you?”

“I will sleep no more but arise, You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you, fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.”

4th of July is also the day Thoreau moves into his hut in Walden. 

Monday

My daughter likes to take rain walks. She's not a kind of person to stay inside even though she's still a little afraid of thunder and lightning at age 7. She really loves her mother, and her mother goes for walks to get out, change her inside consciousness. My daughter doesn't let me read to her like my sons did. She doesn't like to watch movies. Her mother is absolutely devoted to her, to the best of her abilities. 

I really like a thunderstorm. They're amazing displays of nature. To see one come rolling in. That's a midwestern appreciation, you can't see a thunderstorm come rolling in in NYC unless you have a penthouse. There is a view of the sky in my second floor walkup but it's not like seeing a storm coming in, in the midwest. 

She slapped a leaf and said, "I'm high fiving nature." I thought about how Cori's mother has given Ruby an appreciation of nature that I foster as well. As we turned back onto our block, it really started pouring. 

Continuing to read Walls' biography, Thoreau decided to leave Staten Island. He didn't like the museums of New York, he didn't think people were really living. 

He went and visited Brook Farm, but left in a snowstorm. Nobody wanted to take him. 

Henry David Thoreau questioned the community members' idealism and wrote in his journal, "As for these communities, I think I had rather keep bachelor's hall in hell than go to board in heaven"

I'm asking people about Thoreau memories, what they know. I asked my father who is well read. He said he couldn't remember much. He thinks he read Walden at some point. My father worked in computers after being a logic professor briefly. He read a lot, really enjoyed the life of the mind. My friend could remember reading him in college. He was a doctor and we've gone on many backpacking and canoe trips. It's funny, there are a million books about Thoreau and not that much about him in the common parlance. He's a niche interest. Richard Rodriguez talked about how becoming educated distanced him from his family. I suppose learning about something pushes you away from the common people, my friend and father enjoy highlights I tell them, like Thoreau had narcolepsy, probably a secondary symptom from tuberculosis. The tuberculosis and bronchitis would take his life at 44. My father is 76 and I am 56. We've really outlived Thoreau. I was reading a question about what would have happened to John Lennon if he'd lived to today instead of being killed in 1980. One time when I was at Blue Note seeing Charlie Haden, I sat near Yoko and John junior.  

I asked my soccer online friends, and one said Civil Disobedience was important.