As I sit here beside my fire at the cabin, I reflect on the experiences documented by Henry David Thoreau in his book entitled Walden.
Being human
On one level, the book is about a man who goes off to live in a small cabin by a pond named Walden. It describes how be built his home, tended his garden, and walked through the woods. On another level, it is collection of self-observations and reflections on what it means to be human. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it has to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived… 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.”
Selected chapters
The book doesn’t really have beginning, a middle, and an end. There is no hero, no protagonist, no conflict, and no climax. Instead, the book is made up of little stories amassed over the period of one and a half years while living alone. Economy — an outline of the necessities of life such as clothing, shelter, and food. It cost him $28 to built his cabin, and he grew much of his own food. “Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve not for want of necessities, but for want of luxuries.”
I also enjoyed the chapter called “The Bean-Field”. “I have come to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted.” Apparently he had as many as seven miles of beans, if they were all strung in a row. Even over two acres of ground, I find that hard to believe. He mentions woodchucks often in the chapter as well as throuhout the book, and he dislikes them because they eat his crop. I always thought woodchucks — ground hogs — were particularly interesting since they were abundant around the property where I grew up. In relation to economy, Thoreau spent just less than $14 on gardening expenses, and after selling his crop made a profit of almost $9. “Daily the beans saw me come to their rescue armed with a hoe, and thin their ranks of the enemies, filling up the trenches with weedy dead.”
The chapter called “Sounds” is full of them or allusions to them: voice, rattle, whistle, scream, shout, ring, announce, hissing, bells, sung, lowing, serenaded, music chanted, cluck, buzzing, screech, wailing, trilled, sighs, hymns, threnodies, gurgling, hooting, baying, trump, bellowing, crow, bark, laughing, cackle, creaking, and snapped. Almost a cacophony, but at the same time a possible symphony. It depends on your perspective.
While he lived alone, he was never seemingly lonely. In fact, he seemed to attract visitors or sought them out himself. Consider the wood chopper who was extra skilled at this job. Reflect on the Irish family who lived “rudely”. Compare and contrast the well-to-do professional with manners to the man who lived in a hollow log. (I wonder whether or not that second man really existed.)
Thoreau’s description of the pond itself were arscient. [1] He describes its color, its depth, and over all size. He ponders where it got its name, its relation to surrounding ponds, and where its water comes from and goes. He fishes in it regularly, and walk upon its ice in the winter. He describes how men harvest its ice and how the pond keeps most of the effort. He appreciates the appearance of the pond as he observes it during different times of year as well as from different vantage points. In my mind, it is a good thing to observe anything and just about everything from many points of view, both literally and figuratively.
Conclusion
The concluding chapter has a number of meaty thoughts. “I left the woods for a good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one… 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… If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away… However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names… Love your life, poor as it is… Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
Word cloud
As a service against the text, and as a means to learning about it more quickly, I give you the following word cloud (think “concordance”) complete with links to the places in the text where the words can be found:
life pond most house day though water many time never about woods without much yet long see before first new ice well down little off know own old nor good part winter far way being last after heard live great world again nature shore morning think work once same walden thought feet spring earth here perhaps night side sun things surface few thus find found summer must true got also years village enough myself half poor seen air better put read till small within wood cannot fire ground deep end bottom left nothing went away place almost least
Note
[1] Arscience — art-science — is a term I use to describe a way of thinking incorporating both artistic and scientific elements. Arscient thinking is poetic, intuitive, free-flowing, and at the same time it is systematic, structured, and repeatable. To my mind, a person requires both in order to create a cosmos from the apparent chaos of our surroundings.