When I visited Walden, you could still swim in the pond, and so I did. My understanding is that when the property was transferred from Emerson’s estate to the town of Concord in the 1920s, one stipulation was that public access to the pond needed to remain. So unlike most national park historical properties, which often feel kind of phony, to dip into the actual water of the pond was a memorable way of experiencing the site.
As for the hut replica (pictured above), it was lousy with foreign tourists and their cameras. And sure, that’s great, he’s an international celeb, but I wondered how many had even read Walden, much less the book Thoreau was working on while living there (it wasn’t Walden).
If anyone has any interest in that early book, I wrote a little about it years ago. It’s probably one of my all-time least-popular articles:
I feel like this newsletter is speaking to my piece of a few days ago. I spent the better part of a week in the woods and found myself eager to hold onto the Thoreau-like disconnection from all the pings and beeps of our connected life.
Thank you for the permission, reminder, heck! Flashing lights! The Artists’ Way seems another world ago. I’m going to try that tomorrow because it’s really tough waking up to the news right now. Better to create your own world before peeking out.
It's good to figure out when we write best. It's not always morning but for sure there are so many benefits to not checking the phone and immediately jumping into the day (not that I can do it often or well). You prompt me to be more disciplined.
And I won't comment on your not having read Wuthering Heights but I am envious. I would so love to read it again for the first time.
I love this. I miss the daily writing group I was a part of over the summer so much; I still write every day, at more or less the same time, but it takes an extra effort to get myself in the chair when I don't have people to say hi to, even on Zoom. Guarding that writing time is so important. I subbed out lunchtime YouTube videos for reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which I hope to finish in a year or so. I need to structure some afternoon writing time, too!
This is great to read! I absolutely have to start my day like this:
1. Out of bed, play today's news for 15-20 minutes while I brew coffee
2. Set up laptop perch for reading/writing
3. Read HCR's newsletter
4. Write for 2 hours uninterrupted
I clearly have a lot of privilege to be able to do this each day, but I also didn't get here overnight, and I'm still a work in progress. Just wanted to share!
When I visited Walden, you could still swim in the pond, and so I did. My understanding is that when the property was transferred from Emerson’s estate to the town of Concord in the 1920s, one stipulation was that public access to the pond needed to remain. So unlike most national park historical properties, which often feel kind of phony, to dip into the actual water of the pond was a memorable way of experiencing the site.
As for the hut replica (pictured above), it was lousy with foreign tourists and their cameras. And sure, that’s great, he’s an international celeb, but I wondered how many had even read Walden, much less the book Thoreau was working on while living there (it wasn’t Walden).
If anyone has any interest in that early book, I wrote a little about it years ago. It’s probably one of my all-time least-popular articles:
https://10franks.com/2015/08/09/a-week-on-the-concord-and-merrimack-rivers
I feel like this newsletter is speaking to my piece of a few days ago. I spent the better part of a week in the woods and found myself eager to hold onto the Thoreau-like disconnection from all the pings and beeps of our connected life.
Thank you for the permission, reminder, heck! Flashing lights! The Artists’ Way seems another world ago. I’m going to try that tomorrow because it’s really tough waking up to the news right now. Better to create your own world before peeking out.
You didn't mention where the coffee comes in...
It's good to figure out when we write best. It's not always morning but for sure there are so many benefits to not checking the phone and immediately jumping into the day (not that I can do it often or well). You prompt me to be more disciplined.
And I won't comment on your not having read Wuthering Heights but I am envious. I would so love to read it again for the first time.
I love this. I miss the daily writing group I was a part of over the summer so much; I still write every day, at more or less the same time, but it takes an extra effort to get myself in the chair when I don't have people to say hi to, even on Zoom. Guarding that writing time is so important. I subbed out lunchtime YouTube videos for reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which I hope to finish in a year or so. I need to structure some afternoon writing time, too!
Well done. And there's sone great food for thought here on making little pockets of time to write
This is great to read! I absolutely have to start my day like this:
1. Out of bed, play today's news for 15-20 minutes while I brew coffee
2. Set up laptop perch for reading/writing
3. Read HCR's newsletter
4. Write for 2 hours uninterrupted
I clearly have a lot of privilege to be able to do this each day, but I also didn't get here overnight, and I'm still a work in progress. Just wanted to share!