Observancy

Aug. 5, 1851

            The question is not what you look at, but what you see.

            Some people think that Thoreau never left Concord.  But that's not true.  He traveled extensively in New England and wrote about it: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Cape Cod, Maine Woods.  He visited Canada, New York City, and near the end of his life the Midwest.  But it is true that his main focus was the fields and woods of Concord.  And of his locality, you could say, he made a thorough study.  (Sorry.  Couldn't resist.)

            A local farmer would tell the story, in a deprecating manner, of seeing HDT in the morning standing by a mud pool by the river.  At noon he was still there, and he was still there after dinner.  Finally the farmer ask him, in exasperation

"Da-a-vid Henry [Thoreau's given name], what air you doing?"  And he didn't turn his head and he didn't look at me.  He kept on lookin' at that pond, and he said, as if he was thinking about the stars in the heavens, "Mr. Murray, I'm a-studying -- the habits -- of the bullfrog!"  And there that darned fool had been standin' -- the livelong day -- a-studyin' -- the habits -- of the bull-frog!"

In an era where scientists tended to study animals by shooting them, Thoreau wanted to seem them live, as part of their larger environment.  And he did that by watching carefully and closely things that other people entirely disregarded as unimportant.


            There's always enough time.  It's just a matter of setting your priorities in the right order.  That's the hard part.