The radical dispossession and reorientation of the self that takes place in the presence of the wild is necessary, Thoreau is convinced, if we are to arrive at a more thoughtful and sustainable vision of our common social and political life. Such relinquishment, he believed, leaves one less inclined to claim knowledge and power, more open to and curious about the life of the other, more capable of exchange, reciprocity, love.
Douglas E. Christie
The Blue Sapphire of the Mind
