"Where I Lived and What I Lived For"

"Where I Lived and What I Lived For"
from Walden
by Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau recalls the several places where he nearly settled before selecting Walden Pond, all of them estates on a rather large scale. He quotes the Roman philosopher Cato’s warning that it is best to consider buying a farm very carefully before signing the papers. He had been interested in the nearby Hollowell farm, despite the many improvements that needed to be made there, but, before a deed could be drawn, the owner’s wife unexpectedly decided she wanted to keep the farm. Consequently, Thoreau gave up his claim on the property. Even though he had been prepared to farm a large tract, Thoreau realizes that this outcome may have been for the best. Forced to simplify his life, he concludes that it is best “as long as possible” to “live free and uncommitted.” Thoreau takes to the woods, dreaming of an existence free of obligations and full of leisure. He proudly announces that he resides far from the post office and all the constraining social relationships the mail system represents. Ironically, this renunciation of legal deeds provides him with true ownership, paraphrasing a poet to the effect that “I am monarch of all I survey.”




Thoreau’s delight in his new building project at Walden is more than merely the pride of a first-time homeowner; it is a grandly philosophic achievement in his mind, a symbol of his conquest of being. When Thoreau first moves into his dwelling on Independence Day, it gives him a proud sense of being a god on Olympus, even though the house still lacks a chimney and plastering. He claims that a paradise fit for gods is available everywhere, if one can perceive it: “Olympus is but the outside of the earth every where.” Taking an optimistic view, he declares that his poorly insulated walls give his interior the benefit of fresh air on summer nights. He justifies its lack of carved ornament by declaring that it is better to carve “the very atmosphere” one thinks and feels in, in an artistry of the soul. It is for him an almost immaterial, heavenly house, “as far off as many a region viewed nightly by astronomers.” He prefers to reside here, sitting on his own humble wooden chair, than in some distant corner of the universe, “behind the constellation of Cassiopeia’s Chair.” He is free from time as well as from matter, announcing grandiosely that time is a river in which he goes fishing. He does not view himself as the slave of time; rather he makes it seem as though he is choosing to participate in the flow of time whenever and however he chooses, like a god living in eternity. He concludes on a sermonizing note, urging all of us to sludge through our existence until we hit rock bottom and can gauge truth on what he terms our “Realometer,” our means of measuring the reality of things

Black Folk Here and There, Vol. 2

Black Folk Here and There : An Essay in History and Anthropology, Volume II
by St. Clair Drake

To the Jews of pre-Christian Palestine, Black people were sometimes friends and sometimes enemies, but never objects of racially based derision or contempt. The ancient Greeks categorized people not as Black or white, but as ''civilized'' or ''uncivilized.'' In the Muslim world, many slaves were Blacks, but so were many soldiers, several prominent rulers, and an occasional saint. Armed with such facts gathered during a lifetime of research, St. Clair Drake in his final work, Black Folk Here and There, submits to the test of history a wide range of theories that attempt to explain what happens when Black people and white people interact and why color prejudice may arise.
In this volume, Drake challenges theories claiming that negative attitudes toward blackness and Black people, which emerged from centuries of racial slavery, have always prevailed. Drake finds telling evidence of color prejudice and equally telling evidence of its absence or irrelevance.

Black Folk Here and There, Vol. 1

Black Folk Here and There: An Essay in History and Anthropology, Vol. 1
by St. Clair Drake

Professor Drake's Black Folk Here and There is essential reading for anyone concerned with the history and legacy of slavery and race in the contemporary world. This book provides the best review of the specialized literature on race and slavery, making available a great deal of knowledge heretofore confined to university libraries. St. Clair Drake was one of the deans of Black Studies as well as American Sociology, and he applied that rare background to an analysis and evaluation of modern theories of race and racism. His main targets are the theory of black inferiority and the theory of universal black contemptability. Did every civilization develop racism against "blacks"? In order to challenge that idea presented by some psychologists and historians, including the prize winning Professor Carl Degler, Drake reviews the history of Egypt, Ethiopia, Europe and Christianity in the Middle Ages, slavery and Islam, and the rise of the Atlantic Slave Trade. And he finds that there was no universal contempt for blacks. The evaluation of blacks throughout the ages, depended on their status in various civilizations. The high point of black social and cultural status was in ancient Egypt and Ethiopia as well as during the Middle Ages as revealed in such folklore as Prester John and the Black Madonna. However, with the emergence of the Atlantic slave trade as the modern world took shape, Black Africans took on a distinct ly degraded social and cultural status that was spread by modern communications throughout the world. In terms of encyclopedic knowledge on this subject and hard hitting analysis, Drake's study is unrivaled! As a professor of history, I use it as the best introduction to the global problems of race and racism left behind by modern slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. No one knew this subject or wrote with the scope as did Professor Drake.

Asian Tales and Tellers

Asian Tales and Tellers

edited by Cathy Spagnoli

In this abundant and kaleidoscopic collection, Spagnoli includes stories from Japan, India, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Laos, Tibet, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Burma, and Nepal. After profiling modern Asian storytellers practicing traditional storytelling styles, she arranges the stories around dominant Asian themes such as Harmony and Friendship

"What is carved on rocks will wear away in time, What is told from mouth to mouth will live forever." Spagnoli, herself a storyteller, uses this epigraph of Vietnamese origin to launch a glittering collection of tales. Here are stories from Laos, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Korea, Malaysia - the list goes on. Some of the stories carry ancient wisdoms, others bring us contemporary belly-laughs with equal flair. Prefatory chapters contain information on storytellers and storytelling from different regions of the continent, as well as on tools and techniques of this unique performing art. Stories are thematically grouped. Also included are notes, a glossary, and resources both online and print.

When Men Grieve

When Men Grieve: Why Men Grieve Differently and How You Can Help

by Elizabeth Levang

Psychologist Elizabeth Levang explains the special ways that men grieve so those who love them can better understand what they're going through. This book shares the stories of men who have had to deal with grief and loss, and discusses the feelings of denial, anger, bitterness, and despair that can appear.

Healing Our World

Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle

by Mary Ruwart

We've seen the power of win-win strategies in our personal lives. As a result, enlightened self interest includes loving our neighbor and taking responsibility for our thoughts, words, and deeds.

When we deal with groups of individuals through social actions, however, we inadvertently ignore these time-honored principles. Instead of seeking solutions where everybody benefits, we erroneously assume that poverty can only be alleviated by taking from the rich, that a compromised environment is the inevitable result of material progress, and that societal well-being is inconsistent with the selfish nature of humankind. We set the poor against the rich, the industrialist against the environmentalists, the special interests against the common good. We create enemies where friends should be, Like a house divided against itself, we inevitably fall into a state of poverty and strife.

Dr. Ruwart shows us how to transcend these win-lose scenarios by systematically applying the win-win tactics to our social interaction that have proves so successful in our personal lives. HEALING OUR WORLD is the first book to integrate the common elements of our Judeo-Christian heritage, the personal self-responsibility of the Aquarian Age, and the political self-responsibility of the worldwide libertarian movement. "The Easy Way Out" os the realization that others do not create our global harmony and abundance any more than they create our inner peace and enrichment; our reactions to others determine our fate.

By basing our social action on the same principles that govern our individual relationships, we can create a win-win world of peace and plenty, where everyone comes out ahead, With historical examples, Dr. Ruwart meticulously documents the effectiveness of this approach in the mist stringent testing ground of all- the real world. Startling in its simplicity, powerful on its application, HEALING OUR WORLD provides 'the ammunition that a thinking and acting (activist) person needs to make a difference on all fronts of the social struggle occurring in America today."