An easy day today. Just a quiet saunter with the dog. A nice day here in the Foothills. Sunny and warm; around 60 degrees. A half hour leisurely jaunt.Thoughts on Thoreau as I walk. The past few weeks I've been working my way through Walden. Impressions? You can tell that it is written from the perspective of a person under the age of thirty. I don't know how Emerson felt about this young lad, who hit on his wife, squatted on his land and then would read how Thoreau hadn't met anybody over the age of Thirty that had something decent to say. Seems kind of impolite to me.
Thoreau was writing in the 1840's--at the dawn of the age of industrialism. As we close out this dark industrial age (over the next forty years or so) perhaps it is time for a new Thoreau to step up to the plate. We need a new Thoreau to lead us out of the age of gadgets and empire. Perhaps Ed Abbey and Wendell Berry will be looked upon as the new prophets as we move into a post industrial age.
Tomorrow I take a strenuous hike with a couple of young bucks. Lads who call themselves "post modernists" and part of what they call the "emergent" church. A couple of young lads (under the age of thirty) who probably will think, just like Thoreau, that I have nothing worthwhile to say.
Should be interesting.
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