« What is Project Walden?

     In 1854 Henry David Thoreau published Walden; or, Life in the Woods after spending two years off alone in the woods of New England. He went "to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life. . .  to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life." He lived a simple life in the woods, practicing self-sufficiency while pursuing Transcendentalism. Thoreau and his experiments came at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, predating many of the modern changes we have come to know today.

     Over 150 years later we find ourselves amidst a fast changing and ever connected World, a stark difference from time of Thoreau. With the influx of technologies like television and the internet we find ourselves in what could be called a constant "big hum," something Thoreau tried hard to escape from. We also find ourselves admist movements and issues such as the health food movement, homesteading, and environmentalism. How can these issues and movements play into a new Walden? 

    Project Walden looks to find what of Thoreau's Walden is applicable today, what is relevant, what is possible? It looks to form a new Walden that approaches modern problems while keeping with the heart of Thoreau's philosophies. A modified transcendentalism, finding self-truth and actualization, a new perspective on reality through nature. Found through living simply and sincerely and living within one's means.