Mitchell Scholars Visit Walden Pond

By Trina Vargo

On Friday, Mitchell Scholars in the Boston area got together for a trip to Walden Pond. Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau lived for two years in a cabin there and later (1854) wrote the book Walden about living simply. His book influenced W.B. Yeats’ Lake Isle of Innisfree. Walden may be a good book to read again in these trying economic times.

Kathi Anderson, Executive Director of the Walden Woods Project, and a former colleague of mine in Senator Kennedy’s office, kindly arranged the outing. Kathi has been the Director of the Walden Woods Project since the beginning 20 years ago, when Don Henley asked her to lead his project to preserve the area around the Pond. While Henley may be best known as drummer and founding member of the legendary band, the Eagles, it is his work as an environmentalist and the saving of Walden Woods that will be his most lasting legacy.

If you know of a secondary school in Ireland or Northern Ireland that might be interested in the Walden Woods Project online environmental curriculum, check out www. Worldwidewaldens.org and please put any interested school teacher in touch with me and I’ll connect them to the program.

Matt Burne, Director of Conservation and Jeff Cramer, Thoreau scholar and curator of collections took us on a hike around the pond. They taught us about Thoreau's life and writings, and his influence on the American conservation and passive resistance movements. The group then visited the Thoreau Institute where Jeff gave a tour of the library and exhibit space –the largest research collection on Thoreau in the world.

The quiz question: Thoreau expert Jeff Cramer noted that Thoreau had a ‘Galway beard’ – a thin line of hair growth just below the chin. But he didn’t know the genesis of the phrase. If anyone knows why the beard is called a ‘Galway’ beard, do let me know so I can share that with Jeff.

We then headed to Concord to see the Old North Bridge/Minuteman Historical Park where "the shot heard round the world" was fired. And then it was on to the home of Louisa May Alcott. In addition to seeing the desk at which she wrote Little Women, we learned a lot about the family which had views about the education of children, and girls in particular, that were very progressive for the time. A house that had Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne as guests – would have loved to have been at one of those dinners!

Jenny Taranto, wife of Mitchell Scholar Tom Vitolo, is within two weeks of delivering their first child. Tommy thought it would be cool if she delivered at the site of Thoreau’s cabin. When that didn’t happen, he thought maybe in Louisa May Alcott’s bedroom. Personally, while I’m up for nearly anything with the Mitchells, I’m not trained in midwifery so am relieved that Jenny made it through the day without going into labor!

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” - Henry David Thoreau