When I think of Henry David Thoreau, I think not only of some of his amazing writings, but of Walden in particular. And when I think of Walden, I am transported back to 1993, when I was a young man in a world that looked and felt very different than the one we finds ourselves in presently.
There was a girl (isn't there always?) and I admired her quite a bit. We were friends, but I wanted to be more than friends. But at that stage in my life, I just did not know how to make that happen.
Idiot.
Anyway, she was really moved by Thoreau and the movement to preserve Walden Woods. This might have been because she was really quite taken by former Eagles frontman Don Henley. She once invited me to attend a concert somewhere in Massachussetts. Sometimes when I think of that, I kick myself for not going.
These were early days of my activism. I was young and naive. Also, the world felt like a better, more promising place. While I was naive, there were reasons to feel more optimistic back then. Just years earlier, the Berlin Wall had come down, and mostly peaceful revolutions had swept through Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union dissolved, and the Cold War had ended. Apartheid was coming to an end in southern Africa, as first Namibia became an independent nation, and South Africa was moving towards multiracial democracy. Dictatorships were coming to an end all across South America.
Not as much was changing here at home. And yet, it still felt like important things were indeed changing, and the overall scene just felt brighter, more promising. Whatever our political differences, we could all agree and appreciate this being a relatively free country. The future seemed brighter, and my generation (Generation X) was still then expected to do better than our parents had done, collectively. The music scene was changing, seemingly taking a more activist approach. Even politically, things had changed and were changing, as Bill Clinton managed to break through and brought Democrats to the White House for the first time in living memory (for me).
Again, it felt like a different time.
While those changes which were taking place here seemed more modest than in much of the rest of the world, it still seemed like there were huge battles with widespread ramifications. One of them, which this girl I spoke of earlier made me aware of, was the battle to preserve Walden Woods. Of all people, it was Don Henley who was at the forefront of the battle, unlikely as that might seem. He had founded The Walden Woods Project to try and protect the woods where Thoreau had written Walden, and thus had become the de facto founder of our modern society's environmentalist movement.
This is not my first or even second post about the upcoming series on Henry David Thoreau. However, it is now about to air. And I ran into this article about Don Henley, who talks about the series, about Thoreau more generally, as well as a whole range of other issues and things.
Take a look. And enjoy the series!
With his new doc ‘Henry David Thoreau,’ Don Henley returns to Walden by Lauren Daley, March 28, 2026:
The Eagles co-founder talks Walden Woods, AI, Buddhism in nature, and why he founded the Walden Woods Project.
https://www.boston.com/community/entertainment/2026/03/28/with-his-new-doc-henry-david-thoreau-don-henley-returns-to-walden/?s_campaign=bcom%3Asocialflow%3Afacebook&utm_campaign=bdc_facebook&fbclid=iwy2xjawq2brrlehrua2flbqixmabzcnrjbmfwcf9pzbaymjiwmzkxnzg4mjawodkyaaeetbq904jkndws7pl6fvxlmwwftqjbhs4awpu8hmwhqk6da6e3a6fzvgiwze0_aem_yev02nvob8x1ysm4nz5xew
Don Henley teams with Ken Burns for PBS’s 'Henry David Thoreau'
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