Walden by Henry David Thoreau

From The Week of June 20, 2010

Walden may not be thought of as a classic of American literature on par with The Great Gatsby or the like, but it is surely the most famous work of Henry David Thoreau, an influential, 19th century, American philosopher who, aside from being a leading transcendentalist, was a proponent of environmentalism, civil resistance and the abolishment of slavery. Though Walden chiefly concerns itself with thoreau's views on the environment, he makes room here to expound upon many of his passions, causing this to be a well-rounded glimpse into a most remarkable man.

Walden is an account of Thoreau's year spent in the wild. Locating a cabin suitable to his needs, he, in an early nod to we guilty liberals from the next century, devotes himself to living off the land during each of the four New England seasons which can be beautiful, challenging, uncomfortable and deadly. The cabin itself is a charitable description for a room that is little more than a monk's cell. It is a single, bare room, uncluttered by anything but a few personal effects and a handful of outdoorsy necessities. Thoreau ruminates upon his days, his food habits, his thoughts, his dreams. He describes his journeys through the forest, the opinions of those in nearby Concord who think him nuts, and the few visits from his friends to his simple home. And in all this, there is a kind of clarity, of mind and of purpose, emanating from this expression of absolute minimalism which reaches out and connects with us all these decades later.

To each their own, but it seems to me that, in all the noise of our 21st century lives, we've neglected the value of just stopping, listening and reaching out to the beyond. I'm not a sentimentalist by disposition -- I'm just as bombarded by the Noise as anyone --, but there is clarity in silence and in nature. There's a way, in that moment, to grasp onto something larger, a gravitas that only the passage of millions of years can create. And though each of us will learn something different from that silence, from that mental connection, we will all learn something. Mr. Thoreau has many lessons to teach about ethics and the rightness of things, but this stillness, this reflection is the truth that will span the centuries and bestow upon him a legacy for ages. (4/5 Stars)