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WOW! I
just love these “Henry” books my step-mom got for Tori. How thoughtful of her
– she got them so that Tori will have a sense of what I’m experiencing on our
upcoming trip. I love the thought of being able to introduce my four-year-old
daughter to philosophies I embrace despite her being so young. |
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March 19, 2002 Walden Pond – Thoreau’s Cabin – This could not be a better day. The snow and mist make the pond seem so intimate. There are so few people here; with the snow, it seems almost untouched. I am overwhelmed to have trod the same path that Thoreau did. How amazing to look through the trees at his cove. I love that we’re all here together. I feel like we’re such a community – a little family almost. We can be philosophical and thoughtful, but still have such great fun. I am so fortunate to be able to share this experience with such dear friends. I love the thought of living deliberately on this trip – I look forward to looking back on these words and remembering how close, comfortable, warm, cozy, and safe I feel – in this group – in the middle of a New England Winter. March 24, 2002 I can’t quite believe that I’m back at home. I feel so disoriented. I’m exhausted and disconnected, though O-so-glad to be home. I had one of the best times of my life on this trip. I just cannot express it. Tonight, Tori wanted me to read her her “Henry” books. I started crying while reading “Henry Builds a Cabin.” I’m just overwhelmed to have actually stood in his “dining room,” his “library,” and followed the “stairway” to his ballroom, the pond. Tori couldn’t understand why I was so emotional; she wanted to run and get her daddy and tell him I was crying. I couldn’t explain to her how amazing it is that I was THERE – that I sat at Henry’s “desk” – and that I left a little bit of ME there in the woods at Walden Pond. Oh . . . I just don’t know . . . I’m crying again as I write this. |
“American Transcendentalism: An Online Travel Guide” was produced by students in ENGL 446, American Transcendentalism, and ENGL 447, American Literature and the Prominence of Place: A Travel Practicum. These courses were team-taught in the Department of English at Shepherd College (now Shepherd University), Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in Spring 2002 by Dr. Patricia Dwyer and Dr. Linda Tate. For more information on the course and the web project, visit “About This Site.” © 2003 Linda Tate. |