The tribe of Melvin

From today's post at The Blog of Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau's Journal: 02-Dec-1856:

I thank my stars for Melvin. I think of him with gratitude when I am going to sleep, grateful that he exists,— that Melvin who is such a trial to his mother. Yet he is agreeable to me as a tinge of russet on the hillside. I would fain give thanks morning and evening for my blessings. Awkward, gawky, loose-hung, dragging his legs after him. He is my contemporary and neighbor. He is one tribe, I am another, and we are not at war.

He is one tribe, I am another, and we are not at war.

Maybe that's how it is on the road to peace? Melvins everywhere you look.