Henry David Thoreau And His Creative Mastermind

Today I'm in Concord, Massachusetts and I'm here because I'm visiting the homes and the last resting places for three of my favorite authors Alcott, Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.

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Thoreau wrote an incredible book called Walden the best life living by a pond here and self-sufficiency and freedom, and what that means. And it's just an absolute kind of joy, to be able to come here and spend a bit of time understanding how these creative minds worked. And also the impact that the families had on the community was part of how that community can feed off each other how these different minds Emerson, all caught through the auction and knew each other, and they all kind of support each other's work sometimes mentored each other Emerson mentored Alcott Alcott then mentored other people can have that family mentored other people after that as well. And it just is very kind of heartwarming to see the power of mentoring at this place. The other thing I thought was really, really interesting was why she did two other things. One is how small their workspaces were to see how small these desks were. They wrote these incredible works of literature, from these very, very small spaces. So didn't let that stop them. And one of the beautiful things here is here at Henry David Thoreau's gravestone, different writers come and they place a pencil or a pen, or some kind of writing implement here, just to remember that man, so yeah, if you want to do any kind of creative work, find a community of people around you that can support you and if you don't have that community, then you want to move to a place or can find that place online or even better in person where you can have those conversations

here I am, the grave of Louisa May Alcott, credible writer, wrote one of the seminal books on American literature, Little Women apart from other books as well. And she's also her graves here along with her sisters. So we've just been at the outcrop family can home it's called the orchard house. And one of the things that were really pressed upon me was the impact that her parent's mother and father had in that when they were bringing up these girls who went on to become really great creators. One was an artist or writer. The father especially was very keen on just always asking them questions, getting them to rather than giving them the answers to things, getting them to really think through the answers themselves. Just asking lots of questions can catalytic questions, it got them to use their minds in a slightly different way be more curious and arrive at a truth but a truth that was supported by their own thinking because they thought through all the workings of it as well. So a very memorable occasion. Just coming here to the gravestone of Louisa May Alcott. And if you haven't read that book or watched them, check out a Little Woman

Henry David Thoreau And His Creative Mastermind