As may be known, I, Henry David Thoreau, am currently deceased and am survived by my written works including "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience". I pen this from beyond the grave as I feel it necessary to critique this year two thousand and six in regard to my ideas and suggestions for living a successful life. I am very glad to see my books and essays garner more popularity in this time than they did upon their publication; however, this does not mean the ideas presented in their pages are being taken to heart and put into practice. Out of the various subjects broached in Walden, I select environment and its constituent principles to discuss in relation to the present and the era since my demise. This subject, I sense, is the most all-inclusive and is able to be argued most winningly. We need to find our place in the world and live in it well.
English: Portrait by Benjamin D. Maxham (daguerreo...
English: Signature of author Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau's quote near his cabin site, Walden Pond.We can accomplish this by: realizing the connection of humans to nature, living by simplicity, recognizing the illusion of progress, and relying upon ourselves for our happiness and fulfillment.
Human beings are intrinsically and wholly linked to nature. In this year, people appear annoyed by nature and refer to time spent in it as "camping" or "roughing it". Some of us do not realize the origin of many of our possessions is nature. Your wooden table, the paper on which you etch your inane, worthless thoughts, your lucky pencil--all of these begin in nature. People have become obsessed with synthetic materials or natural things made unrecognizable for what they truly are. You should do as I do; bring your tables and chairs outside and notice how at home you feel. Observe the similarities between yourself and the animals you see, not just...