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Thinking about Thoreau

Monday, May 25, 2009
I saw Thoreau's name in passing a few days ago.  I had been feeling the desire to sit outside of society and place judgement.  I thought of Walden and how lovely it would be to sit lakeside and dream and ponder and wish for better things in the world beyond the trees.  I, too, wish life were simpler.  I wish we could slow down and enjoy the little things.  I wish we had time to think about what we wanted and who we wanted to be.  And, I wish we had time to stop and think about not just ourselves, but our friends and even those who aren't our friends.  We live in a society marred by convenience.  We want to fill our lives to the extent that we never have time to sit and contemplate and look around.  What if we all just stopped for a moment.  Would we like what we saw?   Or, would we really see anything different than you might see lakeside?  We are a part of nature, afterall; we are just animals.  And animals are instinctually self preserving.  Nature is just as cruel and selfish as civilized society.  It just has an air of simplicity and dignity we seem to have lost.

As I was walking around thinking about this, I was also thinking about how nice it would be to have a giant to-go coffee in my hand...and how much more I could see and get done if I could just jump in my car...and how much I missed Trader Joe's ready-made pretty much anything.  So, really, I was missing the U.S. for all the reasons I so often complained about.  Apparently, even Thoreau walked into town on a regular basis for a little convenience. 



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