Now is the Summer of Our Disconnect

I was reminded this morning of Henry David Thoreau, who wrote about his bean field in Walden, his famous journal of contemplations about living on his own in a rustic cabin, about Concord, about democracy, about his neighbours. Somewhat like Michel de Montaigne, albeit writing three centuries later, Thoreau seemed to find something to write about in every aspect of his two-year sojourn in the…