{"id":3326,"date":"2020-02-27T04:19:37","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T04:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/02\/27\/thomas-merton-on-henry-thoreau\/"},"modified":"2020-02-27T04:19:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T04:19:37","slug":"thomas-merton-on-henry-thoreau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/02\/27\/thomas-merton-on-henry-thoreau\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Merton on Henry Thoreau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Journals<\/em>, vol. 4, p. 235, 8 August 1962:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Thoreau's idleness was an incomparable gift and its fruits were blessings that America has unfortunately never learned to appreciate. Yet he made his gift, though it was not asked for. And he went his way. If he had followed the advice of his neighbors in Concord, America would have been much poorer, even though he might have sweated a good deal. He took the fork in the road.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Thoreau<\/a>Old Henry David has meant a lot to me too. My mind drifts back to Wayne Monroe, high school history teacher, a grotesquely obese and superficial man who mocked Thoreau as  a hippy who didn't want to work.  "Freight Train Wayne," as we called him, drove a 1964 Pontiac Catalina. When he got in the vehicle it would list pronouncedly to the port<\/a> side.  We observing wits would typically make a crack about his Monro-matic<\/a> schock absorbers.<\/span><\/p>\n

That Merton was drawn to Thoreau has something to do with my being drawn to both of them.  Thank you, gentlemen, for living your lives in your way and writing it all down for men like me to savor.  Hats off, glasses raised, your memory will be preserved by the like-minded and discerning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thoreau was a great aphorist. My favorite: "A man sits as many risks as he runs."  In those ten syllables, the sage of Walden Pond achieves aphoristic perfection. Study it if you would learn the art.<\/span><\/p>\n

America may not have appreciated him, but the greatness of America is that it allows his like to flourish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Success is living your own life in your own way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Thoreau<\/a>Theme music<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journals, vol. 4, p. 235, 8 August 1962: Thoreau's idleness was an incomparable gift and its fruits were blessings that America has unfortunately never learned to appreciate. Yet he made his gift, though it was not asked for. And he went his way. If he had followed the advice of his neighbors in Concord, America … Continue reading “Thomas Merton on Henry Thoreau”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,406,415,73,376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americana","category-art-of-life","category-emerson-thoreau-and-friends","category-merton-thomas","category-slow-down"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}