A few minutes on a hilltop in Concord

Garrison Keillor's Podcast

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A few minutes on a hilltop in Concord

Podcast 24 — For a moment I thought maybe Henry should’ve had a dog to keep him company but a dog would’ve spooked the wildlife he wanted to see, so what’s the point. Loneliness is an asset.

Garrison Keillor

Nov 25, 2023

Transcript

Thoreau’s great work wasn’t Walden but his daily journal in which he wrote about his walks in the woods and fields, what he saw, what he loved. Walden is blighted by a great deal of pontificating about solitude and independence. If there had been a Mrs. Thoreau, she’d have agreed with him on “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” And she would’ve scoffed at his nonsense — “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” He was chewing on the wrong weed when he came up with that, a line that has led people to waste years writing a bad novel who could’ve been happy bus drivers. Henry wouldn’t have said so much about the necessity of solitude with a woman looking over his shoulder.