The sun is but a morning star

Browsing around the bookshop at the Theodore Green Airport in Providence as I was awaiting the boarding of my flight back to Chicago, I happened upon a gorgeously bound version of the classic, Walden. Often quoted, overly cited, yet seldom actually read, this is actually an intriguing selection to pick up at an airport bookshop; especially if it's a LONG flight.

It's amazing how serene things get in a flight when the cabin lights are dimmed and passengers are either dozing off or poring over their magazines or notebook computers illuminated by the reading lights and the familiar white-blue glow of the computer screens. The baritone hum of the jet engine filters and muffles distracting noise, and the scope of your world focuses onto what the tiny reading light above you illuminates on your tiny fold out tray. Reading of Walden deserves steady concentration that such isolated surroundings can provision.

I think that keeping in mind the concept of volatile truth -- the drive to preseve what is beautiful and non-changing, yet remaining open to the perenial changes -- is key in sticking with this book all the way to the final chapter which ends with the following words:

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us.
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
There is more day to dawn.
The sun is but a morning star.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden)

I really love these words... and the beauty of these words can only be appreciated for those who have walked on the path Thoreau wanted to take us to through every page of this work, uninterrupted...the puns, the subtle allusions and most of all, the persevering spirit that embraces what is real. It's something that I did not realize when I first read this book during college for a Comparative Literature course where my reading session was interrupted by a myriad trivial things; and even while I memorized the lecture notes to pass the exams, I never really got it back then.

Pick up this book, friends.