"Walden" (C)1854 by H.D. Thoreau

I'm still reading, Walden. I have laughed and pondered many of the interesting thoughts Henry David Thoreau--a naturalist, poet, philosopher--writes about in this lengthy book (400+ pages) about all sorts of curious observations he makes about nature, mankind, and living in the woods at Walden Pond in Massachusetts for a few years. I am excited to get to the chapter about higher laws. Here are a few of the latest words that made me stop in my tracks and get even more anxious to see what he had to write about in Higher Laws:

One afternoon, near the end of the first summer, when I went to the village to get a shoe from the cobbler's, I was seized and put into jail, because, as I have elsewhere related, I did not pay a tax to, or recognize the authority of, the state which buys and sells men, women, and children, like cattle at the door of its senate house. I had gone down to the woods for other purposes. But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society. It is true, I might have resisted forcibly with more or less effect, might have run "amok" against society; but I preferred that society should run "amok" against me, it being the desperate party. However, I was released the next day, obtained my mended shoe, and returned to the woods in season to get to get my dinner of huckleberries on Fair Haven Hill. I was never molested by any person but those who represented the state.

Henry David Thoreau was not a hermit or loner. He had many visitors. He was a very frugal man and enjoyed living a simple life. He was well known at the time for his ideas about equal rights for all people. Just to give you an idea of when Henry was alive: Abraham Lincoln, whom you know was against slavery, was elected president in 1860. Walden was published in 1854. Henry also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi. One person can make a huge difference in the lives of many.

I feel like Henry many days. I am grateful we have laws to protect us from criminals as well laws to protect us from the government. Thanks Henry, and our many other fore fathers of America! I salute you. I am rushed for time on this post, so I hope it makes sense. I wanted to add more, but little ones come first. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/merlin/93203690/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau