Walden Post

            Time is never wasted so long as experiences are being made that will be remembered forever. Henry David Thoreau spent two years, two months, and two days of his life alone in a cabin by Waldon Pond. During that time, he documented his thoughts, feelings, and realizations about nature and mankind's role in the world. He discovered a true passion for the earth, the animals, and for music, and developed ideas that are the forefront of today's "green" movement. Thoreau did not waste two years of his life at Waldon Pond because he created a manuscropt that would inspire people for decades to come, and showed brilliant ideas that were way ahead of his time.

            Thoreau became very interested in the lives of various wild animals during the time he spent at Waldon Pond. He was able to get an entirely new perspective on the world by experiencing the rawness of nature, before the progress of men altered it. "I was not only nearer to some of those which commonly frequent the garden and the orchagrd, but to those wilder and more thrilling songsters of the forest with never, or rarely, serenade a villager," (Thoreau 488). During this thought, Henry David Thoreau is explaining that he was able to experience animals in nature, birds in this case, that most people go through life without ever seeing. He is saying that not only could he view more slosely the life of well-known birds, but many types of species that are nearly brand new to the human eye. This rarity shows the amazing experience Thoreau had during those two years of his life, which were most definitely not wasted.

            Nature itself played a huge rold in helping Thoreau discover his ideas about the world's importance and the destruction of progress. His green ideas resulted in his amazement with nature's beauty. The simplistic celestial of the unexplored world was held very near to his heart, and he found that the world is it lies before humans destroy it is beautiful. "I discovered that my house actually had its site in such a withdrawn, but forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe," (Thoreau 489). This idea of the forever new that Thoreau mentions is describing the ineptness of nature before it is altered by humans. He is saying that he believes people should appreciate the world as it is, rather than destroying nature with the desire for progress.

Henry David Thoreau dedicated over two years of his life toward finding the true wonders of the nature in the world. His discoveries were written down to create a work that consist of the same ideas that many environmentalists have today. His ideas were far ahead of his time, and he was able to influence the world. His time spend at Waldon Pond was not wasted, because he was able to experience things that many people go through their lives without coming close to. He saw sides of nature that many people never will, and he witnessed animals that most people will never see. Thoreau was a brilliant man who is far ahead of his time, and who was able to spend two years, two months, and two days of his life accomplishing the writing of one of the most quoted manuscripts in history.