Food For Thought
Today in 1845, a post-college grad and unemployed teacher, struggling through an economic depression, bought second-hand building materials, borrowed space on a friend's land, and built a small, one-room cabin. Aside from thrift, his primary motive for conducting this experiment was cultural anthropology, studying mainstream American habits and lifestyles from the perspective of an outsider and critic. He spent two years doing this, eating and wearing only what he could raise with his hands, was was given by family, or what he could barter for. While there, he also spent a great deal of time observing the woods around him, taking both practical and philosophical lessons from what he observed. He wrote down his results during this time and over the course of the next ten years. Most everyone he knew thought he was crazy.
The result of all this was the book Walden, and of course the guy was Henry D. Thoreau. Aside from the traditional resonance of July 4th, I try to take a lesson from HDT each year. Given the current state of the economy, he seems all the more relevant.