So, I am going to try a different approach and a different movie: The Thoreau Society offers a DVD, 'Life With Principle.' It’s about the life and thought of one of my heroes, Henry David Thoreau. I intend to get it for us, and share it with others on the spectrum. This takes the place of practically all else - the proposed speaker series, the movie afternoons (unless you want to go when I go), etc.

According to the website, ‘Life With Principle’ “emphasizes the importance of spirituality over materialism, it urges people to free themselves from the "Quiet desperation" of their lives. It helps to show the power Thoreau's thinking exerts in the American psych.”

It involves a “powerful interactive educational DVD-ROM that provides illustrative connections to all of its content and Special Features. This is accomplished specifically through the ROM MENU.”

Also that “respected teachers, educators, and scholars from 28 U.S. States collaborated to produce more than 100 pages of classroom material, including the following: 6 Curricula for the 6 thematic chapters of the "Life With Principle" film, a 16 page Study Guide, and a Scholarly Commentary by Dr. Bradley P. Dean. Educators from around the world have written in to comment on the quality and usefulness of this product for their classrooms.”

Again:

“This DVD is an exploration of how the ideas expressed by Henry David Thoreau apply to the challenges we face in the 21st century. Why should we care about a writer who lived 150 years ago? What could he possibly have to say about the dilemmas we find ourselves involved in today? You will soon see.

“We all find ourselves in situations with difficult decisions to make. Sometimes we know what is right; sometimes it is not so clear. We see things that are wrong and are conflicted about what to do. We often feel alone in the world, trying to figure out where we fit in. How we can also follow our own way even when others all seem to be going a different route? When can we find time to think when we are so busy all the time? If we are always working, how do we make the time to enjoy the things we really love? Where do we get the courage to make changes in our lives so that we feel more comfortable with ourselves?

“This program will introduce you to people from many different backgrounds who will talk about the choices that they have made and the ways they have coped with various predicaments that they have confronted. Their conversations are meant to get you talking.

“Because Henry Thoreau grappled with so many of the same issues and because he was a good writer whose words survive in books, essays, and journals, we can come to know him through this connection across time and place. Whether the topic is simplifying our lifestyles and eliminating distractions, being a non-conformist when it is easier to go along with the crowd, examining our obligations to each other and to ourselves, understanding our need to have and conserve wildness, or discovering what is truly important in our lives - Thoreau has insights worth checking out.

This program will provide you with material by and about Thoreau, as well as questions and suggestions for discussions, for writing, researching and taking action. We have organized this DVD into six sections which correspond to six major areas in Thoreau's observations about individuals, society and nature. You will be able to navigate between the contemporary film and all the other components on the menu, following the path you choose. That is very much in the spirit of this independent minded American author.”

I will make everything work towards working with this. That means, of course, the social and support groups. As soon as I can get it, I'll show it . . . . And show it again until all of you have seen it.

Like before - as with the 'Meeting Rules," - some of you will object to this thing being imposed on you. Ever consider how much you impose upon me? I make these message boards available to you, make the social and support group meetings, and other activities, available to you, and you come as you please and do as you will, never taking full advantage of these things even when you commit to it.

I plan to work with as many of your parents as I can get a hold of to help make this happen. I will offer the program to them first, perhaps, so that they can decide whether to get behind it or not. I think our friends at First Presbyterian Church, who have graciously supported us thus far and who want to provide financial backing to a substantive effort, might help with this.

Since you have decided, if only by default, that you are not T* A* S* C*, I will go back to being that, all myself. I will do for you rather than with you, as you have chosen to have it. As William James said, "If we hesitate, that too is a decision." Well, in helping to shape and determine the character and course of T* A* S* C*, the groups, and other activities, you have not only hesitated, you have procrastinated!

Not that it matters anymore. I will do as I see fit to do my best to help you, as I have long since committed to do. You can make of what is there what you will. Hopefully, when the program is made available, you will take advantage of the opportunity. Hopefully also, having done so, you will take advantage of the opportunity it speaks to, that is, your life.

Those of you who read the original message thread on this topic via email through the T* A* S* C* message board online may have noticed that I included my Appalachian Trail group in the previous email. That was quite deliberate, and in that sense, in keeping with Thoreau's admonition to live life "deliberately." I want this to be your notice - my notice to you - that I am not holding myself back just to bring all of you along and keep you up.

I realized that when some of you (at least) made the commitment to join me in working on the several T* A* S* C*-related projects (I. e.: the speaker series and related grants, the incorporation effort and related funding issues, etc.), you were indeed with me, then and there. Here and now, I have found, is a different story. Are you still looking to me to bring you up to speed on "our" progress, so that you can (re-) commit (again) to where we are at that time; in full support of what has been accomplished for you, by me, though nominally by "us."

There is, however, no 'us' here and now, nor then and there, nor later and . . . . There is only each of us, separately. So, I am not going to keep, even by default, "fighting" it. Instead, I will work to make it a positive thing - an advantage, a strength. An asset. And to make it so for each and every one of us.

So, I will neither ask that you be, nor hope that you will be, 'with me.' Instead, I will ask that, when the time comes, you will be with (and for) you.

Please note that it’s not Thoreau per se that the program is supposed to help people understand; this is not a component of a history, philosophy, or literature course. It is a whole curriculum. Thoreau, in essence, is the teacher . . . . Or, rather, he - his life and thought - is the classroom.

That is, the point is not to convert everyone to becoming disciples of Thoreau, Transcendentalists, or what-have-you; the purpose here is to offer people something that challenges them to 'consider the way in which they live their lives' on a deeper level than whether they use solar power or ride biodegradable bicycles.

Thoreau wrote: "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book." I wonder how many of you may do the same with this program.

Part of the purpose behind 'Life With Principle' - behind utilizing the media, the format in which it is presented - is to make it available to people no matter where they are, or what their situation is. This program - this effort - like T* A* S* C* itself, is intended as a means to an end, not end in itself. The point is that you reap some tangible, meaningful benefits for yourself, not whether you ever come to Tallahassee, subscribe to Transcendentalist philosophy, or go to live in the Woods besides some pond for two years, two months, two weeks, two days, and two hours. . . .