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A review by dustyloup
Walking by Henry David Thoreau
5.0
I think I could return to this essay time and time again. I took eleven pages of notes with quotes as I was reading. So many things to like about this and more digestible than Walden. I tried reading that once and got bogged down by it. Thoreau is not perfect by any means and his ignorance of women and Native Americans seems quite clear, but he was a product of his time and manifest destiny was in full swing. It’s fascinating to read and see, really feel an America at the bridge between the past and present. Written in 1861, so we’ve passed or well into the “industrial revolution” phase but there’s still a wildness to the country…before railroads and telephone lines became ubiquitous. The time before America became a superpower.
Here are just a few of the thoughts that sprang to my mind as I was reading this...
The little details of the landscape can be just as enjoyable as wide vistas. A place that you know very well can be explored so deeply that it becomes wondrous instead of mundane.
In the midst of a global pandemic, it's important to realize that politics and the economy are a mere part our landscape - not insignificant, but they're not everything! Art, literature and poetry are part of the path too, and there is a season for everything. So now is a time to be reading and reflecting on it and it's ok that there are also times not to do so.
Thoreau muses on whether it’s important how many “foggy days” and the opposite of mountain air a man experiences. At this historic moment, we see how climate of fear reacts on man too – topped with isolation and we've got a parfait sundae of things that are bad for humans.
When Thoreau speaks of the Wild, it's easy to think that this is an outdated concept. How much Wild is out there now? For better or for worse, digital spaces/the cloud are another form of modern-day wild. And there is still “Wildness” in this digital world – the dark web and/or new ways of living under surveillance. And now, “life after coronavirus” may be a new Wild to explore. That sounds quite dark, but what I mean is that these things are part of the path, part of the world - not all of it. These modern versions of the Wild are simulacre – substitutes for the real wild that we’ve fenced in, but it is still there under our feet, ready to break through the concrete!
Just as Thoreau describes politics as being important but not everything, the same is true for today's digital frontiers and new ways of imagining society. Looking at them in a different light doesn't stop us from being civilized, far from it, it means that we can step back and look at the core - tearing down the fence that we built around it in order to both more civilized and more connected to the Wild.
To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Possessing something, holding on to it actually sucks out the pleasure from it. Once you say, “It’s MINE and no one else can have it!”, a wall is built around the thing and there is no longer a connection with the outside world or even other ideas, places, things, people. No interaction, no food for thought. This is not just true on an individual level but a societal level as well.
“Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild.”
Which means this wild is not only an individualistic, human search for meaning and order in the world, but also the story of nature. During this time of confinement, the wild plants have taken root and found their place amongst the groomed bulbs along the lake near my home. This idea of rewilding and nature naturally sending its fibers to the wild is at the core of permaculture.
More about the Wild and its dark side: "The cities import it at any price.”
The Wild is the novel, the exotic, the new, the thing that gets you high – the cronut is today’s headdress. The symbol that progress has no limits and that there is always something new under the sun, that there is enough for everybody who has the wealth to pursue it - city-dwelers are wealthy and powerful enough to buy whatever they want and they believe their purchase buys the adventure and culture that it represents. While "essential" employees are risking their lives, the rich are ordering delivery. To quote Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cronuts."
Today there’s too much focus on productivity and being useful and accomplishing things – gaining knowledge to gain power and influence. Here Thoreau says that ignorance can be good for the soul, good for humanity. In this time of a pandemic I would have to agree, because a little knowledge goes a long way and then too much makes for anxiety and panic. Ignorance doesn’t necessarily mean stupidity either – when you’re a young person staring at the wall doing nothing you are still doing something, that rest and recharge period is essential to growth, just like plants need a break sometimes. Parents need to be strict sometimes (setting limits, bedtimes, etc) like plants need to be treated aggressively sometimes (being shaken up by animals to knock off seeds or buds, or humans “deadheading” flowers), but constant activity, use, movement wears them out just like us!
The trap of knowledge is that once you say “I know x…” it’s difficult to acknowledge what you don’t know – the concept of fencing off again! Thoreau reveres the Wild yet wants to buy a property. Of course, that’s our nature, to search for something and hold it in our hot little hands even as we know we’re like the cartoon character Elmyra who just wants to “love and squeeze” whatever she has to death. We love our Wild so much we have killed it and keep looking for new ways to make and remake it.
“It is remarkable how few events or crises there are in our histories; how little exercised we have been in our minds; how few experiences we have had.”
I think this is why the Wild is so attractive, because when we are living a civilized life, we are coddled, protected from the elements and don’t have to work for what we have. I mean there’s work and work. Shuffling papers and emails and phone calls around is not work, it’s busywork at best, insanity making at its worst. This pandemic is a wakeup moment for lots of folks that what they’ve been doing is meaningless or sometimes just the opposite – that what others mocked and called menial work is actually now considered essential. I fully accept that my work is not essential and that the world won’t change one iota when I get laid off. My boss will have a harder time of it, but life will move on, the work will shift. What’s essential today will be meaningless in a few months and vice-versa. That’s why you have to know your own nature and live in a way that is true to it.
Here are just a few of the thoughts that sprang to my mind as I was reading this...
The little details of the landscape can be just as enjoyable as wide vistas. A place that you know very well can be explored so deeply that it becomes wondrous instead of mundane.
In the midst of a global pandemic, it's important to realize that politics and the economy are a mere part our landscape - not insignificant, but they're not everything! Art, literature and poetry are part of the path too, and there is a season for everything. So now is a time to be reading and reflecting on it and it's ok that there are also times not to do so.
“For I believe that climate does thus react on man,--as there is something in the mountain-air that feeds the spirit and inspires.”
Thoreau muses on whether it’s important how many “foggy days” and the opposite of mountain air a man experiences. At this historic moment, we see how climate of fear reacts on man too – topped with isolation and we've got a parfait sundae of things that are bad for humans.
When Thoreau speaks of the Wild, it's easy to think that this is an outdated concept. How much Wild is out there now? For better or for worse, digital spaces/the cloud are another form of modern-day wild. And there is still “Wildness” in this digital world – the dark web and/or new ways of living under surveillance. And now, “life after coronavirus” may be a new Wild to explore. That sounds quite dark, but what I mean is that these things are part of the path, part of the world - not all of it. These modern versions of the Wild are simulacre – substitutes for the real wild that we’ve fenced in, but it is still there under our feet, ready to break through the concrete!
Just as Thoreau describes politics as being important but not everything, the same is true for today's digital frontiers and new ways of imagining society. Looking at them in a different light doesn't stop us from being civilized, far from it, it means that we can step back and look at the core - tearing down the fence that we built around it in order to both more civilized and more connected to the Wild.
To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Possessing something, holding on to it actually sucks out the pleasure from it. Once you say, “It’s MINE and no one else can have it!”, a wall is built around the thing and there is no longer a connection with the outside world or even other ideas, places, things, people. No interaction, no food for thought. This is not just true on an individual level but a societal level as well.
“Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild.”
Which means this wild is not only an individualistic, human search for meaning and order in the world, but also the story of nature. During this time of confinement, the wild plants have taken root and found their place amongst the groomed bulbs along the lake near my home. This idea of rewilding and nature naturally sending its fibers to the wild is at the core of permaculture.
More about the Wild and its dark side: "The cities import it at any price.”
The Wild is the novel, the exotic, the new, the thing that gets you high – the cronut is today’s headdress. The symbol that progress has no limits and that there is always something new under the sun, that there is enough for everybody who has the wealth to pursue it - city-dwelers are wealthy and powerful enough to buy whatever they want and they believe their purchase buys the adventure and culture that it represents. While "essential" employees are risking their lives, the rich are ordering delivery. To quote Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cronuts."
“We have heard of a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It is said that knowledge is power; and the like. Methinks there is equal need of a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Ignorance, what we will call Beautiful Knowledge, a knowledge useful in a higher sense: for what is most of our boasted so-called knowledge but a conceit that we know something, which robs us of the advantage of our actual ignorance? What we call knowledge is often our positive ignorance; ignorance our negative knowledge."
Today there’s too much focus on productivity and being useful and accomplishing things – gaining knowledge to gain power and influence. Here Thoreau says that ignorance can be good for the soul, good for humanity. In this time of a pandemic I would have to agree, because a little knowledge goes a long way and then too much makes for anxiety and panic. Ignorance doesn’t necessarily mean stupidity either – when you’re a young person staring at the wall doing nothing you are still doing something, that rest and recharge period is essential to growth, just like plants need a break sometimes. Parents need to be strict sometimes (setting limits, bedtimes, etc) like plants need to be treated aggressively sometimes (being shaken up by animals to knock off seeds or buds, or humans “deadheading” flowers), but constant activity, use, movement wears them out just like us!
The trap of knowledge is that once you say “I know x…” it’s difficult to acknowledge what you don’t know – the concept of fencing off again! Thoreau reveres the Wild yet wants to buy a property. Of course, that’s our nature, to search for something and hold it in our hot little hands even as we know we’re like the cartoon character Elmyra who just wants to “love and squeeze” whatever she has to death. We love our Wild so much we have killed it and keep looking for new ways to make and remake it.
“It is remarkable how few events or crises there are in our histories; how little exercised we have been in our minds; how few experiences we have had.”
I think this is why the Wild is so attractive, because when we are living a civilized life, we are coddled, protected from the elements and don’t have to work for what we have. I mean there’s work and work. Shuffling papers and emails and phone calls around is not work, it’s busywork at best, insanity making at its worst. This pandemic is a wakeup moment for lots of folks that what they’ve been doing is meaningless or sometimes just the opposite – that what others mocked and called menial work is actually now considered essential. I fully accept that my work is not essential and that the world won’t change one iota when I get laid off. My boss will have a harder time of it, but life will move on, the work will shift. What’s essential today will be meaningless in a few months and vice-versa. That’s why you have to know your own nature and live in a way that is true to it.