College Daze?!

Here's a picture of me from my days as an undergraduate in college, some 20 years ago. As you can tell, my hair was thicker, I had a shaggier beard, and I wasn't wearing eyeglasses yet. As Lee Iacocca said of himself in his book Talking Strait,"the hair and the eyes go first. The brain...later!" ☺

Actually, this is a picture of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), New England philosopher and author known for such classic and influential works as On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, and Walden. Thoreau is often associated with the philosophy of Transcendentalism, although Ralph Waldo Emerson is arguably the "poster child" of Transcendental philosophy.

So now the $64,000 question: why do I have a post today on Henry David Thoreau when it's not his birthday, anniversary of his death, or any other significant date in his life? Two reasons. (1) I think he has a cool looking beard. (2) Although it's been more that 15 years since I've read any of his works, he did have some pretty cool things to say about life. (3) Folk-singer and author Michael Jonathan of the Wood Songs Old Time Radio Hour has recently finished a play titled Walden - The Ballad of Thoreau. In this play, which became available in October, Jonathan depicts "the last two days Henry David Thoreau spent before leaving his cabin at Walden Pond". Oh yeah, here's a fourth reason: this is a busy weekend, and putting a post on my blog is a fun way to avoid doing work! Take care!