by Wesley Deans

Created on: March 04, 2009

Into the Woods: Walden

Henry David Thoreau's Walden recollects the two years he spent on his own in a forest near Walden Pond.
Thoreau experiments with a simpler life away from the hustle and bustle of urbanized America. He felt that if he could spend more time thinking and meditating his life could attain deeper contentment. In contrast, he felt the trifles of city life kept people from happiness, as they busily sought for material gain, social status, and other luxuries of life.

A core element of Walden was "the simpler, the better." Thoreau lived in a log cabin that cost him $28.12 to build. A 10X15 foot abode made for a humble life by almost anyone's standards.
Rather than spending hours on end at an un-enjoyable job, Thoreau chose to raise enough crops to live on and make a small profit from the surplus. His philosophy allowed him to spend more time doing activities that satisfied his inner spirit. He enjoyed listening to the sounds of the forest, the hooting owl, scuttling rodents, and the chirping birds amongst the trees. There was more time to meditate and become spiritually connected with nature.
His life of simplicity stands in stark contrast to city life. We constantly rush from place to place attempting to "get everything done."
Rarely do we have time to sit back and attune ourselves with the quiet voice of nature.

Thoreau gives a prime example of the meaningless pursuit of luxury when he roams the countryside and comes upon his neighbor John Field. He notes that John Field and his wife labored diligently on their farm in order to have the material goods that were unavailable to them while they lived in Ireland. John Field fell into a vicious cycle "As he began with tea, and coffee, and butter, and milk, and beef, he had to work hard to pay for them he was discontented and wasted his life into the bargain." John Field thought his was the "good life," but enslavement to work for the sake of material goods left him empty and desirous of deeper meaning.
Thoreau's lack of desire for luxury goods allowed him to reach a spiritual and intellectual enlightenment unavailable to John Field.

With such cluttered city minds it is no wonder we have more difficulty in attaining the higher standard of self-actualization.
Our brain desires higher levels of functioning, but we keep giving it tired, repetitive thoughts of want and desire.
At the end of our lives will we truly be proud to say that we spent extra hours at the office so we could purchase the new Jet-Ski or

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