Transcendentalism in the news:
Wild and Craggy, Just Like Thoreau
Although, I can offer a few quips about Thoreau's 'experience in nature,' I like the idea of "Civil Disobedience" being played out atop a mountain in the philosopher's honor. Get out and explore--and name things after transcendentalists!
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Musing about Walden
The following entry was originally born onto the page as a sample independent reading response for my students to use as a model. Although the piece could be deemed 'snooze-worthy' by the average 8th grader (and perhaps by some adults), I recognized its potential as a beautiful edition to "The Trekking Transcendentalist." Enjoy!
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
In 1845, Henry David Thoreau decided to apply Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendental philosophies to his life by escaping society and living within nature. Although Emerson’s transcendental ideas are meant to be followed in a more spiritual and theoretical fashion, Thoreau decided to trade in materialism for self-reliance and built a cabin in the woods near Walden Pond. Thoreau spent one year at Walden where he hewed his own wood, hunted for his own meat, grew his own crops, and built his own house. Although I have a few gripes about how truly ‘self-sufficient’ Thoreau was—he interacted with many people on Walden Pond, inherited a half-completed cabin, and received food from pitying locals—Thoreau does muse well about nature. My favorite quote from Walden illustrates the inherent conflict of wanting to explore nature while guarding its purity:
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
In 1845, Henry David Thoreau decided to apply Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendental philosophies to his life by escaping society and living within nature. Although Emerson’s transcendental ideas are meant to be followed in a more spiritual and theoretical fashion, Thoreau decided to trade in materialism for self-reliance and built a cabin in the woods near Walden Pond. Thoreau spent one year at Walden where he hewed his own wood, hunted for his own meat, grew his own crops, and built his own house. Although I have a few gripes about how truly ‘self-sufficient’ Thoreau was—he interacted with many people on Walden Pond, inherited a half-completed cabin, and received food from pitying locals—Thoreau does muse well about nature. My favorite quote from Walden illustrates the inherent conflict of wanting to explore nature while guarding its purity:
“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature” (Thoreau 122).
This quote stands out to me most because it represents how everyone seeks the tonic of wildness and that once people get a taste of nature, they grapple with the issue of immersing themselves within nature while desiring that it will remain untouched by man. In connection to Walden, Thoreau is commenting on the fact that although he finds tranquility within the woods surrounding Walden Pond, he wants to preserve the territory as a place that is vacant of man and wild with nature. While Thoreau wants to preserve nature, he also wants to live among it—claiming that “we can never have enough.” Thoreau’s message serves to illustrate the ‘slippery slope of exploration,’ in which humans have a tendency to ‘over indulge’ in something they want to preserve and end up removing its novelty and its purity through exploration.
Thoreau’s quote connects well with my life because, I too, find myself yearning for nature, yet wanting to preserve it. For me, living in the Alaskan backcountry for seventeen days was one of the most extraordinary and humbling experiences of my life. I was forever at the mercy of Mother Nature—her creatures, her weather, and her violent change. While in nature, I was in awe of everything around me and both wanted to explore it, yet wanted it to remain untouched. In my explorations most of the ‘leaving nature untouched’ came from the perspective of ‘other people leaving nature untouched;’ me, I could be immersed in nature as much as possible without fear of destroying anything. My concern in connection to Thoreau’s quote is the idea that other humans over-love, over-process, and over-harvest nature. We begin with this sense of being in awe of nature, of wanting to immerse ourselves in it—because it is so pure and wild, but in immersing ourselves within it, a bit of wildness is lost. The issue, that we all yearn for nature, yet want to protect it, is the issue about which Thoreau was speaking. This is the issue with which I grapple while exploring and it is the issue that most naturalists feel is their number one concern. Although we need the tonic of wildness, we all need to learn how to preserve it.
Thoreau’s quote connects well with my life because, I too, find myself yearning for nature, yet wanting to preserve it. For me, living in the Alaskan backcountry for seventeen days was one of the most extraordinary and humbling experiences of my life. I was forever at the mercy of Mother Nature—her creatures, her weather, and her violent change. While in nature, I was in awe of everything around me and both wanted to explore it, yet wanted it to remain untouched. In my explorations most of the ‘leaving nature untouched’ came from the perspective of ‘other people leaving nature untouched;’ me, I could be immersed in nature as much as possible without fear of destroying anything. My concern in connection to Thoreau’s quote is the idea that other humans over-love, over-process, and over-harvest nature. We begin with this sense of being in awe of nature, of wanting to immerse ourselves in it—because it is so pure and wild, but in immersing ourselves within it, a bit of wildness is lost. The issue, that we all yearn for nature, yet want to protect it, is the issue about which Thoreau was speaking. This is the issue with which I grapple while exploring and it is the issue that most naturalists feel is their number one concern. Although we need the tonic of wildness, we all need to learn how to preserve it.
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