OCT 16, 14 .. ON WALDEN POND .. HENRY DAVID THOREAU ..

IF just one English Major that I will never meet happens to stumble upon this Post and gains some information and knowledge about their hero Henry David Thoreau .. then all the work to put this Post together will have been worthwhile.

Let’s begin with a likeness of Henry David Thoreau.  I will refer to him as Thoreau.

As I begin this Post for the 4th time .. I full well realize that I risk getting myself very deeply in-over-my-head with all of you who are English Majors and Fine Arts Majors and cultivated Upper Gentry folks.

Here we go ..

Below .. courtesy of ‘Google’ and Wikipedia are some very basic facts about Henry David Thoreau.

Walden (/ˈwɔːldən/; first published as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is an American book written by noted transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings.^[2] The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance.^[3] First published in 1854, it details Thoreau’s experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. The book compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development.

By immersing himself in nature, Thoreau hoped to gain a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection. Simple living and self-sufficiency were Thoreau’s other goals, and the whole project was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy, a central theme of the American Romantic Period. As Thoreau made clear in his book, his cabin was not in wilderness but at the edge of town, about two miles (3 km) from his family home.

I have to be honest .. I can truly relate to this gentleman and to his goals.

This Post and this visit to Walden Pond would never have happened without our Boston hosts Ed and Martha.

A Bed and Breakfast along with its sign was immediately adjacent to the Walden Pond park.

“What does that prove to us Captain?” .. “It proves simply that I like the color green and the sign.”

In the gift shop were many wall posters regarding our-man Thoreau.

Below is a photo of what Thoreau’s small .. 10 foot by 15 foot cabin mentioned above looked like.

It appears that fans and followers of Thoreau are quite an active group with many activities.

SHOP AT WALDEN POND (AND BRING MONEY WITH YOU) ..

If one single thing both shocked and fascinated me about Walden Pond it was simply that .. in my own personal opinion .. Walden Pond does not seem to me to be a ‘pond’.  I feel it is a small LAKE.

Wikipedia states:

Ponds and lakes are very similar. Both are small bodies of water, either natural or man-made, that are completely surrounded by land. The primary difference between the two is their size. Simply put, lakes are larger and ponds are smaller. However, there is no standardization of lake sizes. Some sources claim lakes are bodies of water larger than 2 acres. In Montana, the minimum water surface area of a lake is 20 acres. But since the size of your body of water isn’t a clear indicator, here are a few more factors to consider:

Read more: Pond or a Lake | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/pond-lake.html#ixzz3GGmrNqCp

To support my own personal opinion on this silly issue-within-my-head .. below are far more photographs than any of you want to see of Walden Pond that prove to me (NOT to you Gullible!) that it is a LAKE ..

“What’s that Ed?” .. “The Dinkey Bird IS singing in the Amfalula Tree.”

The first photographs of Walden Pond (it IS called a Pond so I will honor that .. Walden Lake sounds ridiculous!) are taken from above the pond on the road that goes past it.

Do you all see the sign that I showed above .. it is on the left margin of the below photo about in the center.

Standing in the same place .. the above photo looks left and the below photo looks right.  The park is very pleasant.

Look straight across the road as photographed above and you see Walden Pond as viewed from the road.

When we first motored past Walden Pond and looked down upon it .. I thought .. “That is a lake.”

Can you all see Walden Pond through the trees?

Now we are going to walk down to Walden Pond.

Above we look down upon the service building from the road and below we see it from the beach.

Down the steps we walk to Walden Pond.

And after our visit on the beach .. below we will walk up the steps shown above.

Below is a photo of Walden Pond taken from the steps as we are about to reach the beach.

We have reached Walden Pond Beach.  I don’t know what the boat and the Park Rangers are about but IF I had to know what everything was before I snap a photo .. friends .. there would be NO photos.

Ed called them Docents .. a person who acts as a guide, typically on a voluntary basis, in a museum, art gallery, or zoo.

English Majors .. Fine Arts Majors .. Upper Gentry Folks .. Ed and Martha .. What’s with the boat and Thoreau?

I actually wanted to walk over to them and ask what they were discussing but I lost the thought.

Each week the New Yorker Magazine has .. at the back of each issue .. a page called .. Caption The Cartoon. Readers send in enormously witty phrases about what they think is going on in the uncaptioned cartoon.

Do any of you care to try to caption the below photo?

Now for some photographs showing Walden Pond as viewed from the beach.

That will finish my photographs of Walden Pond.  It IS Walden Pond but the battle in my head rages on.  Consider if you will the below information about the ‘Pond’.

Do I see in the photo above that Walden Pond is 61 acres in size with a circumference of 1.7 miles and a maximum depth of 102 feet?  Sounds like a lake to me.  But Thoreau no doubt called it a Pond and forever a Pond it shall be.

The below poster on the wall of the Walden Pond Gift Shop absolutely fascinated me.

As far as I could tell .. this poster was not a spoof.  Some of the literature in the gift shop stated facts about Thoreau that generally align with some of the below charges.  But who knows.  Fascinating.

Oh Come On .. Does This Man Look Like A Neer-Do-Well? .. Ah-h-h-h ..

Below is one thing that utterly surprised me.  Thanks to Martha who brought it to my attention .. Thoreau seems to have enjoyed a fascination with the nation of India.

I see this and I feel more comfortable with my own very real fascination and love for India.

And Martha pointed out to me the Introduction to the above book in the Gift Shop about Thoreau ..

Me too Henry David Thoreau .. Farthest India is nearer to me than where I now sit !

Ah .. The Time Has Come The Walrus Said .. To Talk Of Many Things .. Of Shoes And Ships And Sealing Wax .. Of Cabbages And Of Kings .. Of Why The Sea Is Boiling Hot .. And Whether Pigs Have Wings ..

IF only you all could have seen the absolute higgly-piggly of mixed photographs that I shot at Walden Pond and that I had to somehow get them into some order to prepare the Post .. you would be amazed that I pulled this Post off.

Patti is amazed .. So too am I .. Smiles from both of us ..

• ← OCT 15, 14 .. A NICE LUNCH IN BOSTON ..
• OCT 23, 14 .. PHENOMENAL PIZZA IN EAST SYRACUSE .. NEW YORK .. →