There's nothing like having kids to cause you to revisit your youthful assumptions and beliefs with new eyes. When I was assigned Walden in high school, I took it very much at face value. My teacher told me that Henry David Thoreau wrote about self-reliance and living deliberately and simply. And on its face, that's what it is.
But I didn't have the privilege of Google when I was in high school 30 years ago. I accepted the conventional understanding taught to me. My daughter, now reading Walden, wanted to look deeper and contextualize Thoreau within the Transcendentalist movement and life in pre-Civil War New England. And that context changes forever for me the true message of Thoreau's meditations.
The Walden mythology starts very much with the notion of self-reliance. Thoreau wasn't living off the land. The cabin he lived in was built by Irish immigrants brought to build the railroad. After the railroad was completed, the people of Concord didn't want poor immigrants in their town, so they were run off. The cabin itself was a mere 20 minute walk from his mother's home, which was convenient, since she came daily to leave him cookies and sandwiches and his sister came to clean and do his laundry. Let's talk about how truly self-reliant you are when Mommy is bringing you food and Sister is cleaning up after you. Or you're mooching off Lidian Emerson's hospitality, since we all know that Ralph Waldo Emerson wasn't doing the cooking or cleaning. But I bet that Thoreau never considered that all that labor done for him to be anything less than his due.
But that's the case for a lot of these men we've built up as greats. Einstein's Nobel Prize for the Theory of Relativity was basically co-written without credit by his first wife Milena Maric. Much of Franklin Roosevelt's presidential work in his final year was actually Eleanor's labor. Some of the most significant scientific advancements made in the 19th and 20th centuries (DNA, astrophysics, industrial engineering, atomic energy, et al.,) were actually done by women, but the credit went to men. There's a name for this phenomena: The Matilda Effect.
So I want to take a moment on this Labor Day weekend to ask you to think of all the uncredited and unappreciated labor being done that enable the big things to be done.
ABC’s “This Week” — Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan; Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. Panel: Matthew Dowd, Rick Klein, Mary Jordan, and Asma Khalid.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Pete Gaynor, acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro. Panel: Andrea Mitchell, Jeh Johnson, Shawna Thomas, and Danielle Pletka.
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — McAleenan; Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. Brock Long, former FEMA administrator; Sergio Martin of Doctors Without Borders head of mission for Mexico. Panel: David Nakamura, Shane Harris, Salena Zito, and Sahil Kapur.
CNN’s “State of the Union” — Gaynor; Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.; O’Rourke. Panel: former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.; Xochitl Hinojosa, former Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah; and Wajahat Ali.
CNN’s “Reliable Sources” — Brian Karem, White House correspondent, Playboy magazine; Ted Boutrous, attorney representing Karem in lawsuit against President Trump; Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief, The Atlantic; and Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor, Slate. A panel with Elaina Plott of The Atlantic, Julia Ioffe of GQ and David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun.
CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” — “State of Hate: The Explosion of White Supremacy”
“Fox News Sunday” — Gaynor, Scott; AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and Cal Ripken Jr. Panel: Brit Hume, Donna Brazile, Kristen Soltis Anderson, and Charles Lane.
So what's catching your eye this morning?
