Thoreau

In a way I don't like the name of this blog, because, I'm not sure, but walking in nature is really appropriate actually. 

I'm going to wake up and start writing about Thoreau every morning. I'm working on a book about thoreau, and this public journal will be part of my writing process.

I was thinking about how strict and backward the education at Harvard. Thoreau got lucky to spend some time working with Orestes Brownson. He's a minor figure in the movement, but he was in the movement, and wrote a theological book that I'm not going to read. Theology is perhaps the least interesting aspect of the whole movement. I found it fascinating that the Wikipedia article didn't mention Thoreau's time with the family for a few months. That kind of thing signals perhaps an obsession with certain people. 

I fell asleep listening to Nature by Emerson. Uninterested in it, but maybe I'll catch some interest somehow letting the words wash over me.

Saw a strong recommendation for reading the Journals, and I'm looking forward to reading that. There are journals at the Morgan in New York. Found this video of Walls talking about the book she wrote. They have his desk at the library. I'd like to go to the Concord Museum sometime. In her talk she conveys how much his mother and sister loved him. She talks about being social and friendly. She's good as seeing how silly it is to belittle Thoreau for having his family do his laundry. He ate a chipmunk, but evolved towards vegetarianism. Alcott recommended living on vegetables, nuts and berries. He didn't quit eating fish, but he worried about it, and moved towards it. He was curious about Native Americans. She ends, "A man both in and out of time." (Found another talk, this time from Harvard Divinity School)

Supposedly when Walt Whitman's parents got married the sun was orange in 1816, like it was briefly, last week. A little smoke from forest fires is not the same as volcanic ash in the atmosphere, one is short term and the other one last a little longer. But it gives a taste and flavor.

The other character that came forth from Thoreau's life is Thaddeus William Harris, an entomologist who they didn't have a professor spot open for, so they made him librarian. No mention of Thoreau in his Wikipedia article.  

Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an abolitionist from the times. He wrote Part of a Man's Life. He was an abolitionist. There are so many thorns in the sides of America. 

I read today that Trump asked the Saudi to cut production to raise gas prices during the pandemic. It was a big thing for everyone to say Biden rose gas prices, but there's no outrage at this revelation? The political bias is about pointing out the other sides mistakes, not about integrity and accountability, which makes me sick. 

I work hard to understand my political bias, and understand there's democracy with both sides, and the two side idea isn't really accurate, there as many variations of political bias interpretations. The bias is because we have to theorize because it's too complicated. I still respect the wisdom of my bias and try to curb when it's not appropriate. 

Treat Williams died at age 71, and I'm watching his singing "I got life" in Hair, and I can't help but think that song was influenced by Thoreau. 

Proust liked Emerson and Thoreau.

Links:

Why Henry David Thoreau Would Have Hated Social Media

Quote from Journal Introduction by Damion Searls:

In the course of his life Thoreau may have discovered a species of bream, perfected the technology of manufacturing pencils, and anticipated modern techniques of cranberry farming, but his most lasting discoveries were about the interactions of different systems: how the seasons affect water levels, how animals propagate seeds, how one growth of forest trees succeeds the previous one, how the lake affects the shore or the river the riverbanks, and, most centrally, how the life he led shaped Henry David Thoreau and vice versa.