Listening to a talk given by Jim Forest on the friendship between Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day (Jim Forest is the author of the new book, ALL IS GRACE: A BIOGRAPHY OF DOROTHY DAY,) I was reminded of a story that my father often told about Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
The story goes like this.
When Emerson went to visit Thoreau in prison (Thoreau, a conscientious objector, was in prison for non-payment of taxes), Emerson asked Thoreau, "What are you doing in there?" Thoreau answered, without a pause, "What are you doing out there?"
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| Portrait by Benjamin D. Maxham (daguerreotype) of Henry David Thoreau in June 1856 Courtesy of Wikipedia |
N.B. In 1846, Thoreau was asked to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War and slavery, and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal, until, over Thoreau's objection, his aunt paid the delinquent poll taxes the next day, and Thoreau was released from prison.
I recommend a book by Paul Elie, The life you save may be your own, a spiritual biography of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flananery O'Connor and Walker Percy. Phil Hanna
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