In a previous blog, I mentioned that great philosopher and writer, Henry David Thoreau; and I have been thinking about him again today, mainly about how he went to the woods to live deliberately and left behind all the trappings of civilization.

He opens Walden with these lines:

When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my own hands. I lived there two years and two months. (American, 1985, p. 479)

I often think how nice it would be to live like Thoreau did during that period of his life, to leave behind the rat race of modern civilization and spend my days sucking out “all the marrow of life.”

The problem, as we all know, is that no one in today’s world can so easily escape that rat race. For one, we cannot afford to escape. We are tied down by our financial obligations. We have to pay ever-increasing health insurance premiums, gasoline prices, food prices, doctors’ fees, etc. After all, nothing is going down. Everything is getting more and more expensive. And that includes the price of housing. Granted, some homes have decreased in value because of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco; but if you’ve been paying attention, I am certain you have noticed that houses cost a fortune today. Even the most modest of homes is often unaffordable for many people.

And that brings me to my point. Thoreau built a modest cabin on Walden Pond. It was “tight-shingled and plastered.” It was 10 feet wide and 15 feet long. It had a “garret and closet, a large window on one side, two trap doors, one door at the end, and a brick fireplace opposite.” Thoreau also built an adjoining woodshed. Plus, although he purchased some materials, others, like timber, stones, and sand, he “claimed by squatter’s rights.” He also kept a detailed log of all associated expenses. And in the end, his total financial outlay was the huge sum of $28.12½ cents. That’s right, $28.12½.

Do you have any idea how much it would cost Thoreau to build the same cabin today? I read recently that the average cost per-square-foot for a house is roughly $100. So, if you want to build a modest cabin 10 x 15 feet, that’s 150 square feet, if I’m doing my math correctly, which means that same cabin today would cost Thoreau approximately $15,000. Not bad, you say, even by today’s standards. But be honest; do you really want to live in 150 square feet? Most people today have bathrooms larger than that. And maybe, just maybe that’s the real reason why no one today—including yours truly—will ever go to the woods and live deliberately. Unlike Thoreau, we have yet to learn that “a man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone;” and that includes big, roomy houses. 

Perkins, G. (1985) The American Tradition in Literature:Sixth Edition. Random House. New York. p. 478-510.