Only yesterday did I learn that this year, the year 2017, marks the bicentennial of Henry David Thoreau’s birth. What do such anniversaries mean? What do the passing years measure? In our capitalist world, its consumerism, a big date is useful for promoting new products and for winning grants for related projects. I see that at least two new biographies of Thoreau are slated for the upcoming months; there will surely be more.

Just last year it was the 100th Anniversary of Yellowstone Park. Eight years ago it was the Sesquicentennial of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. The list multiplies easily.

So what anniversaries should be celebrated. I, for one, am interested in following the earth around, keeping track of the yearly arrivals of flowers and insects, each a one year anniversary of uncertain date. A lifetime’s labor, to fill in some of the blanks on the phenological calendar. This seems important to me. Where I grew up, ice out was more talked about than Easter.

Posted on March 12, 2017 04:02 AM by scottking