Emerson/Thoreau Experiment?
Choose one of the following:
Option 1: Take a break and find some solitude-turn off the cell phone, TV, ipod, etc... Get out in nature and actually listen to yourself think. Go to a natural setting where you won't be distracted by people or anything else. Think about some of the transcendental ideas that connect with you. How do they affect you? How can you do a better job of applying them to your life? Contemplate your life, the world, and the impact you want to make. Be honest in your evaluation and compare who you truly are to who you want to be. Essentially, I am asking you to evaluate your life under the umbrella of transcendentalism.
Option 2: If, like Thoreau, you're into pain and suffering, attempt to simplify your life by getting back to life's essential details. In other words, give up a possession or a few possessions that you regularly use and have significant value to you, but end up cluttering your time. Record the changes you made in your life. Be honest-did you cheat and use it occasionally or borrow from someone else? If so, what does that reveal about you? How do friends and family react to your decision to give these things up? Has it made your life any easier or is this possession really a necessity? Will you continue to limit your use of these things? What have you learned about yourself? Why did you choose to give up what you did?
Please include a connecting or revelant quotation from Emerson or Thoreau that connects with your chosen experiment. Complete your experiment and response by 2:30p.m. on Friday, December 12th.
Option 1: Take a break and find some solitude-turn off the cell phone, TV, ipod, etc... Get out in nature and actually listen to yourself think. Go to a natural setting where you won't be distracted by people or anything else. Think about some of the transcendental ideas that connect with you. How do they affect you? How can you do a better job of applying them to your life? Contemplate your life, the world, and the impact you want to make. Be honest in your evaluation and compare who you truly are to who you want to be. Essentially, I am asking you to evaluate your life under the umbrella of transcendentalism.
Option 2: If, like Thoreau, you're into pain and suffering, attempt to simplify your life by getting back to life's essential details. In other words, give up a possession or a few possessions that you regularly use and have significant value to you, but end up cluttering your time. Record the changes you made in your life. Be honest-did you cheat and use it occasionally or borrow from someone else? If so, what does that reveal about you? How do friends and family react to your decision to give these things up? Has it made your life any easier or is this possession really a necessity? Will you continue to limit your use of these things? What have you learned about yourself? Why did you choose to give up what you did?
Please include a connecting or revelant quotation from Emerson or Thoreau that connects with your chosen experiment. Complete your experiment and response by 2:30p.m. on Friday, December 12th.
posted by Greg T at Tuesday, December 09, 2008
33 Comments:
For this blog i gave up watching the television and using my cell phone. The two are very related, given that they are both electronics but i think that television is way less productive. When i didn't watch my television, i got more work done that helps me, but with my cell phone i just felt detached to my friends and family. For a couple of emergancies i used my cell phone but i really sticked to not watching tv and that helped a lot. I plan to cut way down on how much tv i watch because i think it was really beneficial to me. Since i watch too much tv and use my cell phone more than i should, it was an interesting experence.
Option #1
I took some time after school today to go outside and simply enjoy the snow. I walked to a field area by my house that hadn't been touched and remained perfectly white. It was a great escape from all of the things that were going on in my life. I sat and simply took in what nature had to offer. I realized how many things in our lives distract us from what is truly important, causing us to stray from the morales that we have in life. The fact that the snow was untouched made the whole experience almost surreal, it seemed as though time was standing still. The peacefulness made me understand the fact that I need to distance myself from things such as technology in order to take in all that the world has to offer.
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I chose to experiment with option one. This involved taking a small amount of time out of my chaotic day to truly enjoy nature. This also meant that you were not allowed to bring any electronic devices so that you could get the real feeling of nature. I actually found it to be suprisingly releiving. I was able to really think about things in a stress free enviroment.
For the first question I have always had plenty of time away from any type of distraction. I occasionally wander off somewere without really thinking because i'm already deep in thought. Usually I think about band from my life evolving around it and can hear music constantly in my mind. On other occasions I think about people and just my life in general. When I think about my life its were I want to be and what to do after high school. With what I want to do I have to buckle down in school if i want to get to my vision. When thinking of life after highschool I think of all my close friends who I wont see often again. I will have a greater chance of still being with them if I can buckle down in school and get to were I need to be not were I want. Overall my life so far is not where it should be or were I need to be.
I gave up watching tv so much because it really does use up alot of my time and i don't get as much done when im watching it. not watching tv so much helped me focus more and I actually went to bed earlier cuz I didnt have all my hw to do. I will admit tho watching house i really do learn somethings. My parents however were relieved that their electricity bill would be alot lower because the tv wouldn't be running so much. I learned tho that i really don't need so much tv even though i don't watch it that much because I am soooo busy. i chose to give this up however because when i watch it I never want to do hw or anything I get tired and just want to lay there and not do anything. so Im glad i gave up the tv cuz it really shows how much time it takes up and how much more i can get done when im not watching it.
On page 233 it says, "...I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts fo life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not discover that I had not lived." A few days ago, when I got home after school, I went running around my neighborhood, which i haven't done in a while. It helped me just clear my mind of everything with finals coming up and the break almost here. It made me realize how beautiful nature really is and how it is a place where you can "get away". Doing this experiment helped me to remember to enjoy life and everything around us and to take some time for yourself every now and then and just not think about anything.
I picked option number 2 and even though i was grounded and couldnt use my phone or watch tv or get on the computer, it was kinda nice. i didnt have to worry about school drama and in a way it was very silent. i got more things done that made me more proud of myself, like DECA. I had a lot more time to accomplish other things in school and youth group. It made me realize that i use technology way too much and it consumes my life. When i put it down for awhile i was more focused and less stressed because it wasnt one more thing to add to my stress.
I decided to give up T.V and music. Not watching t.v actually helped me out. I was able to study for three tests, and do really good in them. It was a relief knowing that I could go to school the next day with all of my homework done, and best of all, I was well rested. I think that I'm actually going to have a limit on how much t.v I watch, since it did benefit me a lot. The music part was really hard. I gave my mom my radio, i-pod, cd player, everything that had music. I was tempted so much to go and just sit down and listen to music. I usually listen to music when ever I don't feel good, if I'm mad or just tired of everything. But this time I wasen't able to do that, instead I started drawing. But I'm going back to music, I need music.
I attempted to cut out using my cell phone and watching tv. I then proceded just to spend time in my car driving on C470 and just looking at nature with no radio and all of my windows open. I was able to realize that there is so much beauty outside of electronics that we need to invest more time in to. I would love to become more of an outdoorsman that spends their time in nature. I think that if I start to utalize nature and what it will tell me that I will be more efficient in doing what I need to accomplish.
I chose to do Option 2, and I gave up TV altogether and I gave up my cell phone while I did homework and studied. Setting aside my cell phone while I did my homework made everything so much easier. I usually only do the assignments that are due at the beginnging of the day and then complete the rest throughout the day during other classes or off hours. When I didn't have my phone, I had nothing to distract me from completing all of my assignments and it made the rest of my night, and the next day, a lot less stressful. Giving up TV was a little bit hard because at first I didn't know what to do with my time but I ended up finding things to do and it turned out to be not as hard as I expected it to be.
Without the use of these modern technologies I had time to really think and do things that I usually don't do because I'm busy with my phone or watching TV. So I do think that I will continue to set aside my phone while I am doing homework, and to significantly cut down on how much TV I watch.
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My understanding of transcendentalism is that one tries to solve their own problems based on their intuition rather than seeking help or opinions from sources like religion, science, or other people. When I sat outside, I began to think about two things that really hold me back in life: worries about my grades, and constant worry about what other people think of me. In Emerson’s Self-Reliance, it says; “…that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion…” (p.225) and this made me think about how I sometimes don’t accept myself because I can only see my flaws as a person.
When I was thinking about my grades and how I spend a lot of time worrying about keeping them up, I realized that just sitting there worrying about them wasn’t very effective. I thought about how it’s important that I improve my self-talk and realizing that the actual learning is much more important than the grades.
I also realized that I spend a lot of time worrying about what other people think of me. I thought about how worrying is a waste of time because I have no control over what other people think of me.
Today turned ot to be a very good day. after school i took a nice drive up to morrison... i got out of my car and went and sat by the radio towers of lookout mountain; i have never been in a place so quiet. it was almost as if my thoughts could be heard aloud. i really began to think about the last few months, the good things, and well... the bad things. The thoughts came rushing into my head. the peace and quiet helped me put my head on straight for a few minutes. today turned out to be great.
"To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chambers as from society." For this experiment of solitude I decided to give up television because it is a form of technology that requires no creativity or individualism. Where as on a computer or on the phone you are sharing your thoughts, but the TV programs have already been created therefore there is no need for creativity to enjoy it. I noticed that after leaving the TV I started to think of ideas that i wouldn't have thought of if I were in front of the TV. The main thing that I did during my time away from television was draw, and i found it easy to think of what to draw because my mind was free to roam without any distractions. Although I gave up one form of technology I started using another one, which was my Ipod because music is something that i believe helps find solitude because it is soothing and expresses individualism.
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This week has been so busy with stuff that I have not been able to get away form it all and find a place just on my own in the mountains somewhere. From the many times that I have been able to do this, such as skiing through the Spaulding Glades at Copper Mountain, I have thought about what the world has come to. Even in the Ski industry, witch to me is a way of getting away, people have brought out society down to lower levels. People listen to music when the ski, smoke random substances while they ski and show no respect to others around them or the amazing environment that they are luck enough to have surrounding them. I have learned that being ones self and getting back to nature, far enough away in a glade full of trees somewhere, listing and only hearing the sound of nature is what life is about. Technology that we today was not around in the time of Emerson and Thoreau but they were against what was happing an a smaller magnitude then, so if they saw our world today, they would be ashamed. We can all learn from Transcendentalism. Live in the moment, in the world. Not in the virtual reality that has been made for us at the click or push of a button.
I took some time after school yesterday to go outside and enjoy natures beauty. So often, our society forgets about our surroundings because we are so caught up in our own lives. I walked down to Cherry Knolls Park and just rested on a bench in the heart of the park for 15 minutes.I saw trees without leaves rattling in the gusts of wind, I saw two best friends chasing each other around the playground, and I saw tracks on the hill from where "sledders" had been the previous day. It became apparent to me that people aren't enjoying the simple pleasures that nature has to offer. Instead, people need something more complex, they need action, entertainment, and technology. As Thoreau says, "To be awake is to be alive." Distractions in our life cause us to stray from what is truly important. With the rate at which humans are moving into the future, will nature be completely forgotten?
For this class i gave up surfing the internet and watching TV shows. I did allow myself to watch some sports but that was all. Surfing the web was a hard thing to give up because you can use it for so many things. On occasion I broke it but not often. Surfing the web is very time consuming. Something catches your eye and then you just take off. The only time i surfed was looking at some sports recaps. At first i did not know what to do. I usually would spend a lot of my time on the computer or at watching the
TV. Soon i decided to just get stuff done that I wouldn't have done until much later. I was able to relax when i got things done faster and ended up getting a lot more sleep. I was in a lot better mood and did not feel stressed for the first time in awhile. What I realized from this experiment is that electronics themselves are not necessarily unhealthy, it is the time wasted when we do these things. If use electronics for there intended use they can actually be quite helpful. What happens is that we do not use them for advantage and end up abusing them. As thoreau says "our life is fritted away by detail." Instead of using electronics to save time, we waste our time on such things.
After taking time for myself, I realized that when I don’t it is harder to think about all the times that I have to do but when I got to that point of thinking about my thoughts I realized that I have a lot going on in my life and have a lot of things that need to be straighten out, whether it was school, friends or family, I had to do something about all of them. I also realized that I am always trying to fix other problems but taking time for myself I realized that I never have anytime to figure out my own problems and try to solve them later and it ends up being a huge mess later on . “…To give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are!”(p.219Emerson). he talks about realizing the things around him more and really starting to focus on things more and understanding them. Something that I did when I took time for myself and it got me to understand things better and I made me calmer.
Option 1: When i took sometime to sit back, relax and observe nature i thought about some of my qualities and how some people may portray me. "Nature never wears a mean appearance," is a good line from "Nature" because that's how i and everybody else should act towards each other. We should always be kind and considerate to others. Going out and relaxing also made me want to get other things done sooner, so i can have more opportunity to go out and observe. It is relaxing and you becoming care free, more people should spend more time observing nature.
For this blog i went into my most sacred place witch is the woods prier to a snow storm. Just sitting there thinking was not a new thing to me sense i do it often. I love nature and have came to the conclusion that technology is the source of corruption omungst the world. Thousands of years ago when it was just man and nature people where not as motivated to do wrong but where focusing on living which is all humans should be doing. This modern way of living though corrupts people because all people want these days is more, better and faster things, which is in human nature but i think it has gone to a point of rediculousness. Last weekend i spent in winter park for the first time in a year or two and it both angered and sadened me to see all the development and de-naturazation. The problem is people sell out to easy for a quick buck or two not really thinking of the effects it does to mother natures morals. "The greatest delight which the field and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relationship btween man and vegetable." This quote say to me that natures bueties can only be beutiful if you accept it and work with nature rather than destroy it. Also this is random but if i had a wish i would want to go to an uncolinized continent like America was to the pilgrams just to take in the beuty, can you imagine when they arrived and there were no roads paths or anything but mother natures beauty?
Kyle Seyedian
Option #1 (WITH QUOTE)
I took some time after school today to go outside and simply enjoy the snow. I walked to a field area by my house that hadn't been touched and remained perfectly white. It was a great escape from all of the things that were going on in my life. I sat and simply took in what nature had to offer. I realized how many things in our lives distract us from what is truly important, causing us to stray from the morales that we have in life. The fact that the snow was untouched made the whole experience almost surreal, it seemed as though time was standing still. The peacefulness made me understand the fact that I need to distance myself from things such as technology in order to take in all that the world has to offer. A good quote that exemplified this experience from the title page of "Life in the Woods" which read, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life." Showing that a person only needs the essentials in life to be happy.
I took a break from all technology and just laid in the snow. I listened to the sounds of nature that you usually don't hear because of all the distractions in life. I could hear the wind blowing and the trees moving. These sounds made me realize that they had been absent from my life because of technology and such. "I did not wish to live what was not life..." This quote exlpains that with the distractions in our life we don't always live how we wanted or needed. We let the worldy distractions influence us to a extent we never thought we would go and we need to realize that we control our lives and decide what we want.
p233 it says, "...I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts fo life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not discover that I had not lived." i have read a couple of random students blogs and i know that observing people technically isnt a peaceful forest or anything but humans are a piece of nature and i think that a person can have a great gain just by sitting down and observing people. i didnt go out into a solitary environment but i did go to park meadows and observe the the complexity of human interaction. i may not of had a revalation like some students but watching the way humans interact with the world is such a stange and curios thing and it really got me thinking about solitude and why people in general are so afraid of being alone. i asked myself questions like why DO we infact try to all live in one area? why do we feel the need to constantly be surrounded by other human beings? it made me realize how deprived our culture is form solitude. we have made it so that being alone and asking strange question are such indiferent things. it seemed as though humans surround themselves with other humans to suffice for a greater missing peace in their life. not once did i see a shopper sit and say; i am content. whether it be more people or more things no one seemed to reach a contentness for what they have and what is around them. this may sound like a very negative view on life and human beings is general but it is not. its is merely an honest observation.
I gave up my celphone for 2 hours. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I spent my time out side with my horse nad amazingly enough it was a big stress reliever. I got done riding my horse in record time, when it usually takes me 4 hours at the barn it took me only 2. the only thing that was really bad was when it got dark and I wasn't able to call mt mom to tell her when I was leaving. I should really do that more ofetn because i didn't have the nagging of my phone buzzing and i could actually concentrate on my horse and his needs.
For this blog i gave up listening to my ipod and using my cell phone. They have a lot to do with eachother...A cell phone is an electronic, accept an ipod only play music which you don't need that much. I realized that without my cell phone I can do what i say and not to change my plans, etc. Then without my ipod I focused more on the world other than just ignoring it and shutting things out.
Being completely solitary in nature, and cut off from the rest of the world is not only an extremely soothing experience, but an extremely revealing one as well. When in complete solitude, all of the pressures and responsibilities are lifted from the mind and soul, which allows for reflection and exploration of the places that the mind will wander. While alone, and away from all of the stressors in life, new ideas are free to penetrate the mind because there are no other distractions. As expressed by Thoreau when he says, "Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them." just because we live in a "free" country does not mean that our minds are free to roam all of the time. As members of the human race, when we know ourselves and our surroundings, we can accomplish the most together.
I chose to do option one. With everything stressful going on like finals, I felt it very relieving and unstressful to just sit there. I felt myself releasing stress by just observing what was going on in nature. Its nice to see what happens in nature when you aren't paying attention. Its very calming and relaxing. I'm glad I took the time out of my day to sit and observe. "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chambers as from society", this quote means that people need to get int solitude to become peaceful in their lives. Being in nature and complete solitude gives you time to think. With everything going on today it's like there's no time to think.
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As soon as I turned off my phone, I could feel some peace of mind coming back to me. All though I felt partially disconnected from the outside world, I felt at peace with myself. I closed my computer and turned off the television, sat outside in a secluded place and just let my mind wander. While my mind was exploring past memories and thinking of what’s ahead, as well as other unaffiliated thoughts, I realized what technology does to my overall stress level and the role it plays in my life. I also thought that if we were to suddenly lose all technology, the world would be at a stand-still. As Henry Thoreau said, “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.” I believe that books have been replaced by electronics. I am now attempting to separate myself from these objects and now I am simply observing everyone else who is 'glued' to their computer, cell phone, or whatever it is. I really thought about anything and everything, and so this activity allowed me to listen to my thoughts and think about them and make some decisions about my life.
By taking a break from the world's distractions, such as tv, ipods and other electronics, it was extremely hard for me! I noticed that I tend to use those things as distractions. For years, I had no one to lean on or to talk to about bad things that happened. So, I would control my emotions by getting it off my mind. Tv wasn't as hard to get rid of because I barely watch it anyway. My cell phone was difficult because my mom wanted updates on my plans throughout. Music is like breathing to me. It connects me emotionally, spiritually, and vocally. Looking at my life under transcendentalism, I've figured that music is worth having around because it is one of my passions. But, taking quiet time to myself can sort thoughts and prepare myself for future challenges rather than be overwhelmed.
When I went outside and watched what was going on in nature, I found myself in a very peaceful place. I think there is something calming about nature. I think it is because nature seems simple but is really extremely complex. I think this blend of simplicity and complexity makes nature a very soothing place. I often find myself enjoying this quality of nature. Often when waiting for something or someone rather then spending the time on my phone or computer I just like to sit outside and watch things. I think it is almost theraputic in a way.
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