Henry David Thoreau's two years on Walden Pond are better known to posterity than the other forty-three of his brief life. His shack was smaller than a contemporary single garage but, Thoreau emphasised, it was sufficient. In it he kept three chairs: 'one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society'.
Thoreau's masterpiece, "Walden" (1854), is possibly the most popular book of philosophy ever to emerge from the United States, It is beautiful in every way. People can quote lines of it without knowing their source, such as the adage 'to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life'; or, 'a man who has at length found something to do will not need a new suit to do it in'. And, of course, his enduring 'I went to the woods'.
I have my own "Walden" here at "Riverbend". I call it "Melbourne" so that when I'm there and the phone rings in the house, Padma can excuse me for not answering it by saying, "Peter has gone to Melbourne".
I hadn't been to "Melbourne" for a while because of the cold weather, but today I went and I spent several peaceful hours there, reading passages from the illustrated edition of "Walden" against the backdrop of the river and the sounds and smells of the nature all around me.
Next time you phone and Padma tells you, "Peter has gone to Melbourne", you'll know where I am, won't you? - click here.
