Henry David Thoreau -- A Little Idealism Never Hurt Anybody

Yeah, so I won't lie. I don't like Thoreau. I haven't since I read Walden the first time somewhere around junior high. Perhaps it's because I really didn't understand him the first time around, or just generally fall into the "there's no possible way this guy could have been that genuine" category because I'm a little too cynical, but I've just never been able to jive with his work. It isn't that I think he's wrong -- he's all too right about a ridiculous number of things.

I mostly just think he appreciated the sound of his own voice a little too much, and could probably have used a week or two on his own in the real wilderness with absolutely no human contact to properly build on the ideals that he touts so eloquently.

So maybe I'm a little too hard on the guy. But really, he says it himself -- he spent a good bit of time literally wandering around doing odd little jobs that didn't particularly need doing, and was pretty well incensed that the city didn't want to pay him to do what he wanted to do. So in a fit of transcendentalist angst he casts aside this prescribed life depending upon possession and status and advancement and secludes himself in "nature." I appreciate in particular that the area he picks out on Walden pond for his humble abode, he specifically points out, is a spot with great economic possibility.

I could probably rant for an hour on why I think Thoreau's overrated, but I'm sure there are better things I could be doing with my time. I also feel like it's equally possible to appreciate and utilize his philosophy without necessarily separating ourselves completely from the life that we're living -- perhaps this haphazard sort of existance helps us to appreciate the little things in nature and the beauty of that outside, solitary sort of life all the more.