Chapter 11 – Simplicity

Thoreau’s path toward meaning in Walden was downward. Back in evolutionary time and down in gravitational space to Walden’s "deepest resort," its focus on granite bedrock.  There, the center of radial symmetry was the point of maximum simplicity. The renewal of spring rose from below via the turnover of the lake’s relatively warm and nutrient rich deep waters.  Thoreau’s descendental path was driven by the same instincts that brought human ancestors down from the trees and then down to shore.

 

Frozen circle on the surface of Walden Pond. View is southward across the central basin. The circle was created when water welled up through a hole in the ice from the "lower heaven" below.  In the nick of time before the hole closed, water was present in its solid, liquid, and vapor phases.  

 

Closeup of  Fair Haven Cliff showing the grainy crystal structure of the Andover Granite. The rusty-red stain of this freshly broken face is juxtaposed against the worn, lichen-covered surface.  in his mind, Thoreau imagined himself descending to the primitive origins of life where men were the "kith and kin" of such lichens.  And the rusty red "Indian" color of the stain was one that inspired him to think about the the relationship of human blood to Nature herself.