um pouco como Sintra

ou como o herói romântico, solitário, se metamorfoseou num anti-herói comunitário.



"In fact Walden Pond is a major urban park with a dual purpose and a schizophrenic soul. The park keepers, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management (DEM), perpetuate the myth that Walden remains Thoreaus meditative center. A replica of Thoreaus cabin sits beside the parking lot. The store near the parking lot sells books by and about Thoreau.

The myth is buoyed by rock celebrities who periodically stage concert benefits to "Save Walden Pond." Yet far from being a place of contemplation, the pond is visited by more than 600,000 people a year. The vast majority of these visitors appear solely in the summer months. In Spring and Summer, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people spin cast for stocked fish in the pond, lining the banks shoulder to shoulder. They compete with hundreds of families who come to swim at the artificial beach near the road along the eastern edge of the park. In good weather, Walden Pond is a mass of humanity, a stew of frantic motion, boom boxes and squealing children.

In fact, what Massachusetts fondly calls "the birthplace" of environmental consciousness is a giant swimming pool, an over-fished fishing hole, a park masquerading as a contemplative shrine. If you are seeking solace and peaceful communion, never make the mistake I did of visiting Walden on a beautiful Spring weekend."
(daqui)

e ainda: "Now Walden Pond has the highest concentration of urine of any pond in New England"...