{"id":498775,"date":"2026-03-27T19:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/498775\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T19:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:18:08","slug":"lessons-for-modern-living-from-henry-david-thoreau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/498775\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons for Modern Living From Henry David Thoreau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who would\u2019ve thought it: As we try to navigate and survive in a world of digital distraction, constant chaos in the news, and worries about the encroachment of artificial intelligence<\/a>, we can find solace and even some darn good advice in the words of a man who lived two centuries ago and is perhaps best known for holing up in a cabin in the woods.<\/p>\n

Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden and other famous works, responded to the technological upheavals and social strife of the mid-1800s by choosing to temporarily step away from the everyday turbulence of that time to live more simply, thoughtfully, and purposefully, in a remote natural setting. Could we do likewise\u2014at least a little bit\u2014in today\u2019s world? And should we?<\/p>\n

Those are questions one can\u2019t help pondering while watching the two-part PBS documentary film, Henry David Thoreau<\/a>, airing March 30 and 31 on public television stations across the country. The film was co-produced by legendary documentarian Ken Burns and the famed Eagles singer\/songwriter (and lifelong Thoreau aficionado) Don Henley, and co-directed by the brothers Erik and Chris Ewers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a heartfelt, poetic, and beautifully shot tribute to Thoreau. But it\u2019s also something more: a reminder to all of us that it\u2019s not too late to take back our attention<\/a> and our lives\u2014to slow down and make room for actual thinking, wondering, and reconnecting with nature.<\/p>\n

A newfound interest in Henry Thoreau<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about these same themes because of a book I\u2019m writing about how creativity can be inspired by the places where we walk and the spaces where we work<\/a>. Thoreau was, of course, inspired by Walden Pond and its surrounding woods, where he walked for hours each day. And he used his tiny cabin there (which he built himself) as the place where he turned his pondside thoughts into literature.<\/p>\n

Because I\u2019d developed this newfound interest in Thoreau, I recently traveled to his hometown of Concord, Mass. to attend an advance screening of the film. I also planned to walk in Thoreau\u2019s footsteps, circling the pond, the following day.<\/p>\n

The screening included a panel discussion featuring Henley and the Ewers brothers, along with the Thoreau scholar Kristen Case and the historian Douglas Brinkley. It was beautifully moderated by Lois Brown, Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n

At the panel, Erik and Chris Ewers shared insights on how the film\u2014eight years in the making\u2014took shape and evolved as they came to better understand Thoreau\u2019s life, his intense relationship with nature, and his deep commitment to social causes of the day (Thoreau was an early abolitionist and an anti-war activist who was briefly jailed for his stance). As Erik put it: \u201cThoreau retreated into nature not to escape the world, but to better understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don Henley\u2019s Walden Woods project<\/p>\n

Henley, meanwhile, discussed the origins of his own involvement with Thoreau\u2014which began before his rock stardom, when he was a 21-year-old who left college and returned to his Texas home to help care for his ailing father. He started reading Thoreau at that difficult period in his life and was inspired by the writing and by Thoreau\u2019s commitment to nature and nonviolent social activism.<\/p>\n

Years later, when Henley, by this time famous and living in Los Angeles, heard on a TV news broadcast of plans to construct an office park on property near Walden Pond, he immediately traveled cross-country to intervene. He raised funds to acquire and protect the land, under the auspices of a group he started (and still oversees) called the Walden Woods Project.<\/a><\/p>\n

Environment Essential Reads<\/p>\n

Some of the panel discussion touched on the parallels between Thoreau\u2019s time and our own. America, back then, was deeply divided over slavery in the period leading up to the Civil War. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution was wreaking havoc on the natural world and the everyday lives of workers. As Henley put it during the panel discussion: \u201cThoreau saw the machinery of the mills replacing human hands; today we have technology that\u2019s going to replace the human mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe built the world that Thoreau feared\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point near the end of the film, the environmentalist Bill McKibben says, \u201cWe built the world that Thoreau feared. A world that\u2019s so noisy and crowded that we don\u2019t have any time to think for ourselves anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

But of course, that\u2019s not really true: We do have time to think for ourselves, and to appreciate nature, if we make time for that. It\u2019s a matter of resetting priorities and making choices, as Henry did. And no, we don\u2019t have to live alone in a cabin for two years. We can start with a walk in the woods for an hour or two.<\/p>\n

This is what I did the day after the screening, figuring I\u2019d \u201csaunter\u201d (Thoreau\u2019s preferred term, meaning to walk at a leisurely pace) for about two hours around the pond. <\/p>\n

I ended up walking for four hours, not just circling the pond but roaming all around the expansive grounds.<\/p>\n

My walk in the woods<\/p>\n

I\u2019d asked Henley, at the end of the panel discussion, for a recommendation on where to walk and he said, without hesitation \u201cBrister\u2019s Hill.\u201d It\u2019s a beautiful spot, named after a freed slave who lived there in the early 1800s. As you walk through wooded trails, you encounter occasional stone slabs on the ground bearing quotes from Thoreau, placed there by the Walden Woods Project. So if you didn\u2019t happen to come to these woods with thoughts on your mind, these quotes will surely get you thinking\u2014about nature, about justice, about how to live meaningfully.<\/p>\n

I also wandered through a gorgeous meadow near the pond, which filmmaker Chris Ewers recommended to me. He told me that during filming this had been his favorite spot to shoot. And of course, I circled the pond, which takes an hour\u2014or a lot longer if you veer off onto various trails along the way.<\/p>\n

This was my second time coming to Walden Pond in the past year. It\u2019s a magical place, and I will surely return, even though it\u2019s a three-hour drive from my home. And while I recommend everyone visit it, you don\u2019t necessarily have to be at Walden Pond in order to follow Henry\u2019s great example.<\/p>\n

Somewhere not too far from wherever you might live, there is a pond, or a lake, or a park, or a garden, or a mountain. Take the time to go there and saunter. Bring a notepad with you, as Henry used to do. Keep your phone securely stashed away in the backpack. And leave your headphones off\u2014so you can hear yourself think. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who would\u2019ve thought it: As we try to navigate and survive in a world of digital distraction, constant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-498775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}