For Aaron Lisec - who fills me with delight to know one who will appreciate this special piece. It's powerful, an illustrative indirectly political and meaningful lesson without an ugly antagonistic tone. After he left Walden Pond, he took routinely daily walks with scraps of papers for notes, a stick to measure, collecting samples, observing and recording, pressing leaves and things in note books - all while writing about the marvels of it all. A beautiful balance between recording the dry process of data and the boundless wonder for nature. To be truly in tune with the environment, to know it and love it fully. There are links to read what is available from the journals online - free! "Thoreau’s real masterpiece is not Walden but the 2-million-word journal that he kept until six months before he died. Its continuing relevance lies in the vivid spectacle of a man wrestling with tensions that still confound us. The journal illustrates his almost daily balancing act between recording scrupulous observations of nature and expressing sheer joy at the beauty of it all. "
Source:
‘Walden’ Wasn’t Thoreau’s Masterpiece
http://ift.tt/2xndPNR
In his 2-million-word journal, the transcendentalist discovered how to balance poetic wonder and scientific rigor as he explored the natural world.
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