3.29.2014

be blown on
...Thoreau's Journal: 29-Mar-1855

As I stand on Heywood’s Peak, looking over Walden, more than half its surface already sparkling blue water, I inhale with pleasure the cold but wholesome air like a draught of cold water, contrasting it in my memory with the wind of summer, which I do not thus eagerly swallow. This, which is a chilling wind to my fellow, is decidedly refreshing to me, and I swallow it with eagerness as a panacea. I feel an impulse, also, already, to jump into the half-melted pond. This cold wind is refreshing to my palate, as the warm air of summer is not, methinks. I love to stand there and be blown on as much as a horse in July.

2 comments:

Harvin said...

Thoreau and I think alike on the goodness of cold! The cold gives the air a certain, refreshing weight, the way ice enhances a glass of water.

michael jameson said...

life is a matter of perceptions,to some an early cold wind is chilly and uncomfortable yet some see it as refreshing and wholesome just like a swim in early may, their are inside people and outside people,i make no judgment on either yet the majority of my good memories have been outside,some of those are my earliest and most vivid memories. michael jameson oldantiqueguy@hotmail.com