Walden

"Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the language in which they were written must have a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the human race; for it is remarkable that no transcript of them has ever been made into any modern tongue, unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a transcript. Homer has never yet been printed in English, nor Aeschylus, nor Virgil even -- works as refined, as solidly done, and as beautiful almost as the morning itself; for later writers, say what we will of their genius, have rarely, if ever, equalled the elaborate beauty and finish and the lifelong and heroic literary labors of the ancients. They only talk of forgetting them who never knew them. It will be soon enough to forget them when we have the learning and the genius which will enable us to attend to and appreciate them. That age will be rich indeed when those relics which we call Classics, and the still older and more than classic but even less known Scriptures of the nations, shall have still further accumulated, when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas and Zendavestas and Bibles, with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares, and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited their trophies in the forum of the world. By such a pile we may hope to scale heaven at last."

Henry David Thoreau

Summers end was as restorative as any day Thoreau spent watching dead leaves on the bottom of Walden's Pond. We went to Port Huron and water skied, tubed, swam and just plain relaxed on the beach. I could spend every day doing that again and again, no problem. It doesn't take long for the kids to get into the groove of an unplugged weekend and just play like kids did before there were leagues for soccer and baseball, and iPod's or any other number of things which seemed determined to prevent kids from being kids and exercising their minds and hearts in a way that isn't organized by some silly adult. If you haven't read Walden you really should and in my mind read it before summer so you can practice what Thoreau lived for 2 years, simply enjoying life whose beauty and wonderful surround us completely. Simply alive, simply being.