Topic 147: The Joys of the Country Cottager

Carol:

The Pause that Refreshes

I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a Freedom and Culture merely civil, — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. (Thoreau, “Walking”)

I am married to a Massachusetts native who remembers visiting Walden Pond when he was a teen-ager, riding his bicycle from Lexington to Concord. When I asked about his recollections, Marc’s response was “It’s tiny.” I guess reading about it from Henry David Thoreau might make one curious to see what it is like—the pond, not Thoreau’s wilderness lifestyle.  

In Thoreau’s time, Walden Pond wasn’t exactly an isolated wilderness. Apparently it served as a “nature retreat” for the town of Concord. A number of people lived in the woods around the pond, including Irish railroad workers and an assortment of interesting outsiders described in his journals. “An elderly dame, too, dwells in my neighborhood, invisible to most persons, in whose odorous herb garden I love to stroll sometimes, gather simples and listening to her fables” (Walden 152); Thoreau was as isolated as he chose to be because he was also in easy walking distance of Concord and could find company if he desired it.   

Walden Pond

Thoreau’s experiment  at Walden Pond was not just about solitude and nature; it was also about simple living, stripping away the conveniences and  encumbrances of a modern, materialistic life. The first chapter of Walden, called “Economy,” serves as an introduction to the book. Thoreau addresses the readers directly from the perspective of someone who has returned  from having “earned my living by the labor of my hands only” (Walden 1). Most of the chapter is really an examination of what people need to keep themselves alive, what is necessary versus what is luxury.  Thoreau looks to the ancient philosophers as having eschewed a rich outer life for the rewards of a fuller inner life. “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of man” (Walden 15).

Most of us have neither the time nor the inclination to step out of the world for two years into the solitude of a Walden Pond.  The term “social networking” has become such a part of our thinking that it may be hard to imagine disconnecting from our adult toys, computers, media and frenetic lifestyles. A couple of years ago when I took a nine-month class at my church, the participants were asked to “turn everything off” for just one day as part of experiencing “voluntary simplicity.” No phones, computers, I-pods, answering machines, electrical appliances. Just one day to slough off that accumulation of the “comforts of life” that Thoreau refers to. I closed the door to my office, seated myself with a view of Granite Mountain, poured a glass of water and started reading. I felt an incredible freedom when I heard the phone ring and didn’t answer it, when I became master of my day.

Thoreau didn’t have a wife and children to feed. And I no longer have kids that need to get to soccer practice or piano lessons. The solitude and inward journey described by Thoreau is itself a luxury. But, I imagine everybody appreciates the value of a little peace and quiet, a temporary time out from life. The pause that refreshes.

Sources:
Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Image of Cover: Schward103. (Public domain file from en.wikipedia: Category:Books made in the 19th century)
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906. The Walden Woods Project:

Megan:

You'll never think of cottages or dogs the same way

I’m sure this topic is meant to be about the pleasures of country life. It certainly evokes the image of the thatched-roof tiny white house out of one of a Thomas Kinkade painting, with a bubbling brook and scattered wild-life. I have always been attracted to the ethereal fairy-tale images, and when I picked out the flat I rented in England, it resembled that dream.

The thing is, in England the term  “Cottager” is also a euphemism. In its verb form, “cottaging” is the act of having anonymous homosexual intercourse in a public toilet (ala George Michael).  According to Wikipedia (it’s times like this I LOVE the internet), cottage became a term for a public toilet in Victorian times but cottaging wasn’t picked up as term within the British gay community until the 1960’s. 

Public Toilet, Pond Square, London

I first became familiar with the expression when I was studying abroad at the University of Sussex. My friends and I frequently watched an adult cartoon series called Monkey Dust. On the show, there was a recurring character by the name of Geoff who was a self-proclaimed “First-time cottager.” Geoff was very unlucky. Although he was determined to participate in this ritual, he was regularly thwarted by obstacles and misunderstanding and never managed to achieve his goal. Youtube has many clips, but none of them are appropriate for me to post here because I don’t want to have to register this website as having "adult content."

When we pulled this topic, I got the giggles and had to explain it to my mom. However, I mis-remembered the details and told her it was anonymous public sex on the side of the road, occasionally with an audience. That is actually called “dogging” – which was gleefully described to me by a housemate’s boyfriend, again while I was living in Brighton.  Last October, the New York Times featured an article about a lay-by (or, as we would call it: a rest-stop)  in Puttenham, Surrey in England.

“So popular is the woodsy field below the ridge as a spot for gay sex (mostly during the day) and heterosexual sex (mostly at night) that the police have designated it a “public sex environment.””

After learning about this phenomeon, which is in no way restricted to Surrey, it became impossible for me not to notice all the cars parked on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. According to the NYT article, this practice is so popular, there are websites and guides devoted to popular areas in the UK. When I was working in the prison, I once heard one officer joke about another that she knew the location of every lay-by in the county, and I only now understood what was being implied.

I bet this isn’t what you were expecting when you came here today. I can’t wait to see how the search statistics will change to reflect some of the keywords I’ve used today. 

Sources:

Wikipedia: "Cottaging" Image taken from this entry.  New York Times: "Here’s the Pub, Church and Field for Public Sex" October 7, 2010