MeredithHarber

"To enjoy these advantages I was ready to carry it on; like Atlas, to take the world on my shoulders--I never heard what compensation he received for that--and do all those things which had no other motive or excuse but that I might pay for it and be unmolested in my possession of it; for I knew all the while that it would yield the most abundant crop of the kind I wanted, if I could only afford to let it alone."

Thoreau's selection cannot possibly be about farming. I think this is his metaphor for life. We can do as much or as little with what we are given. Some of us are able to continually search for the perfect "land." Others continue to screw each other out of the life we try to achieve. I am always fascinated when someone alludes to Atlas. The concept of holding the world on your shoulders is so comfortable to me. There are definitely days when I feel like I am holding up the world; and, should I step away, it would go rolling down the tunnel, Indiana Jones-style. This passage also strikes me as being somewhat religious. "If I could only afford to let it alone." This is reminiscent of many devotional materials in the Christian church. It's so hard to let go and let God (or the world) run the course.