Prologue

My name is Jim MacArthur, and this blog is primarily for me.  But also, I hope, for my students at Tolland High School, and possibly my colleagues there and their students, and maybe even strangers from who-knows-where brought here by The Google.  [WARNING:  I am a Thoreau enthusiast, not an expert. I've read some HDT, I've read a couple of biographies.  But count what you find here as my impressions, and something less than facts.]

In April of 2011, I finally visited Walden Pond.  I had lived within two hours of Concord for most of my life, and had been an admirer of Thoreau for many years, but somehow I had never made it there.  To be honest, it's not that much of a pond.  But it's Walden.

While I was there, I bought a copy of selections from Thoreau's journals, and read it over the summer vacation.  Along the way, I underlined my favorite passages.  (I'm told you can effectively do the same thing on a Kindle, but ink on paper feels more intimate to me.)  I did that just for me, because I wanted to engage the text (and HDT) more closely.  Only later did I get the idea that I should take my notes into the classroom.

I just meant to take a few highlights, but I ended up with seven pretty tightly-packed pages.  I tried to go easy on my classes, so I asked them to read the packet -- I'm sure that some of them did -- pick and five favorite passages, and then respond to one.  What I really wanted to do was to go through each and every one of them with the class, at some length.  But if you've ever been in front of a high school classroom, you know how successful that would be.  (And if you've never been, the answer is: "not very".)

Hence, this blog.  It will give me the leisure and the luxury of saying as much as I want to, and only those who are interested -- if there will be any -- need get involved.

I begin this effort on July 4th, 2012.  It may well be two years, two months and two days before I finish.  (If I ever do.   I see that I have 66 small commentaries to write after this one.)  My intention is to expand upon Thoreau's ideas and observations in order to bring Thoreau to life for the novice reader.  Nothing would please me more than to have others join in the discussion with their own views and opinions.

Near the site of Thoreau's cabin there is a pile of stones.  Some, like the one at left, have been painted in advance, and brought some distance, to be left there, in hopes that. . . ?  I'm not sure.  But such an action sanctifies the spot.  You'll see a similar response if you visit HDT's grave in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery nearby in Concord.  Thoreau was a difficult man, and at times an unhappy man.  But there's something about him that touches people to this day.  I'm one.  Maybe you are, too.