Before setting off, he fills his backpack with a rain jacket, snacks, and a copy of Thoreau’s Cape Cod to keep him company. Hoping to escape the “doubt, fear, shame, and sadness that had arranged a constellation of grief” around him after a breakup, Shattuck first retraces Thoreau’s journey along the beaches of southeastern Massachusetts. He decides to start this walking project as a way to experience the peace and restoration that may be inspired by encounters with the natural world. Relationships are at the heart of this gentle and moving book, a recognition the author acknowledges in his very first words where he defines “footstep” as a step made by a walker “especially as heard by another person.” Reading personal travel accounts gives Shattuck a way to hear Thoreau’s steps and points the way to follow after him. In Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, Ben Shattuck conjures an I-Thou engagement with the Massachusetts transcendentalist. It can also occur between humans and other living things. The encountered one need not even be aware of the encounter what matters is that one subject relates to another subject with openness and honesty. It is instead a relationship of true connection, recognition, and appreciation. As opposed to an Ich-Es “(“I-It”) encounter, Ich-Du does not involve a sense of purpose, evaluation, or even analysis. He calls one form of relationship with the world Ich-Du - “I-You,” or more commonly “I-Thou.” An I-Thou relationship occurs when two beings meet without any objectification of each other-whether they are lovers or strangers. In his 1923 treatise Ich und Du, Jewish philosopher Martin Buber argues that human existence fundamentally revolves around engagement with the world.

Walking by henry david thoreau