[pct-l] Walden on walking/ hiking

[Jon Danniken]

JoAnn M. Michael wrote:
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> In our most trivial walks, we are constantly, though unconsciously, 
> steering like pilots by certain well-known beacons and headlands, and if 
> we go beyond our usual course we still carry in our minds the bearing of 
> some neighboring cape; and not till we are completely lost, or turned 
> round --  for a man needs only to be turned round once with his eyes shut 
> in this world to be lost  -- do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness 
> of nature. Every man has to learn the points of compass again as often as 
> be awakes, whether from sleep or any abstraction.  Not till we are lost, 
> in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find 
> ourselves , and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our 
> relations.
>
>
>  - Henry David Thoreau, "Walden, ch. 8 "The Village""

Thanks for posting that, JoAnn.  I've always appreciated Thoreau, especially 
the way in which he found comfort in the surroundings of the natural world, 
and that passage in particular summarizes the reason why I backpack, namely, 
to become lost to the world.

I only wish that more people could allow themselves to come to such an 
understanding, but in this day and age it seems to be relegated to 
anachronism.

Jon