Utopia

Mom and I went on a field trip to Fruitlands today. I always thought I'd been there before, but nothing seemed at all familiar.

In June 1843, Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott's father, took his family and several of his associates to this farmhouse in Harvard, Massachusetts, to pursue a communal utopian dream. A very strict vegan utopian dream. No use of animal byproducts whatsoever. Not even wool to stay warm in the winter.

Alcott lived his life at his visionary extremes and his family always went along for the ride until his pragmatic wife, Abigail, would put her foot down for the sake of their four daughters. In the case of the Fruitlands experiment, Abigail lasted until January 1943, a mere nine months after it began.

I'm thinking a bit of wool could have made all the difference, but then I'm not an eccentric radical like Bronson Alcott.

I'm actually very thankful for eccentric radicals like Alcott. Did you know that because of people like him, our kids are encouraged to ask questions at school when they don't understand something and they get to have recess to invigorate their minds?

Speaking of eccentric radicals, Henry David Thoreau, a close friend of the Alcotts, never actually went to Fruitlands, but his desk is on display there now.

I actually saw Thoreau's desk today!