Walden Pond — Wilderness Therapy

During the past couple of months in History 453 we have often discussed the spiritual value of wilderness; and during the past couple of weeks we have studied a closely-related concept, the therapeutic value of wilderness — think Nash and “Wild.”. Ann Walden Pond I encountered a fine example of two persons who regularly go to the pond for a kind of wilderness therapy. I ran into Mike on a trail down to the pond. He was walking barefoot, and it looked as if he had been swimming although the water temperature was a chilly 46 degrees. I began talking to him and learned that he swims in Walden Pond almost every day — and in the nearby Atlantic Ocean when Walden freezes over. He suffers from bouts of severe depression and these dunkings help him maintain his health. I told him that I teach a course on the American Wilderness at Eastern Washington University, and my students would be interested in his story. Mike agreed to speak on camera While he was talking, another swimmer, Bella, came up the path and joined the conversation. I’ll let them tell their story in their own words, but I offer these prompts to help you get the full benefit of the interview. (By the way, the pond was just behind me as I filmed our conversation.) — In our reading about wilderness therapy the usual venue is a week or more in the woods — in the case of Cheryl Strayed in “Wild” the wilderness exposure was a lot longer. But it strikes me that these cold-water swimmers gained very similar benefits, and a kind of wilderness therapy, in short doses, often repeated. What do you think? — Mike and Bella refer to themselves as “ponderers.” What is a ponderer, and what specifically about nature and the therapeutic value to themselves of swimming/ (By the way, Bella indicated that some ponderers are suffering from a bipolar condition, and the swimming helps them: they sometimes call themselves the “Bi-Polar Bears”!) — Bella refers to Walden Pond as the “Lourdes of New England.” (Lourdes is a famous pilgrimage site in France.) What do she and Mike consider to be special about the waters of Walden Pond?