The Owl and the Sick Soul

How much of what your ears take in do you actually hear? The chapter of Walden called Sounds opens on that uncomfortable question. It is Thoreau's first report from inside the experiment, and it begins with attention, the faculty he believed could bring a dead hour back to life. Then night comes down over the pond and the owls start. Thoreau heard something in their calls that most readers hurry past, something wilder and sadder than birdsong, and Kaag will be honest about why it reaches him; William James had a name for temperaments like his. Somewhere in the middle Kaag goes quiet and just listens. You might try it with him.