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 Monday, December 13th.
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 Monday, December 13th.
posted by Greg T at Tuesday, December 07, 2010
15 Comments:
just like thoreau i decided to give up the things that made my lfe " complicated " such as the internet, my phone, and my car. during the 3 hours i lasted without the stuff i used every day i want insane. It drove me nuts not what was going on with all my friends and ppl around me. But this dig give me a new look on what life would be like without the technology we now love and depend on.
After going out into nature and evaluating who I truly want to be and who I truly am, I feel as though we as humans try to hold high expectations for ourselves and that it is hard to excel at all the things we may want to do. Being out in nature with a clear mind gave me time to think about what matters to me… am I living life the way I want? Or am I just making it through life, to get things over with. Personally what makes me important? Does each decision I make, even if it may not be to my advantage, truly effect my over all happiness? Theses questions are the ones that came to mind, as I contemplated my life. I began to think here I am in this world…. only a piece of it. What truly matters to me and how am I going to life my life in a way that I can separate the unimportant stresses that clutter our lives and find what is truly relevant to me…a deeper happiness with having less. “Our life is frittered away by detail.” (Thoreau pg 237)
There have been many times in my life where I have left all my technology and possessions behind and sat in the mountains. During these few days and sometimes even weeks I found myself. It is so relaxing to have the gift of simplicity. When there is nothing else to worry about besides searching yourself, there is a feeling of calm joy that consumes you. A weight is literally lifted off of your shoulders. Not having to worry about 21st century things, like cell phones, facebook, cars, drama, friends, boyfriends, nothing, these are the happiest most relaxing times in my life. Sure you miss the world that we are all so used to living in, but living in a place where no stress exists is a million times better. Even though it is hard to clear the mind and relax, it is even harder to stay true to yourself after you have cleared your head and reminded yourself who you really are, and want to be. I know for myself the shock of the real world coming back to you all at one time is overwhelming. This feeling makes you want to live with the most simplicity possible, forever. Once you have adjusted back into the real world it is hard to keep being the person that you were in the forest. “These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world.” (Emerson)
Finding solitude is a difficult task because it does not come easy after taking away possessions like my cell phone, computer, ipod, and TV. Although the place is well known, Daniel’s Park has become my secret hideaway. I tried to write down my thoughts but they were so clouded with distractions from the outside barriers of nature. I found myself thinking about how individualism should outweigh other people’s influence and it should also break conformity in society. This idea is shown in Nature by Emerson when he states, “To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society.” The world we live in today is full of slow-building pressure from everyone that makes it hard for the individual to realize and move away from it. The most present case of this in my life is school. High school has turned into a place that most teenagers associate with dread and hatred. This results from the fact that society has forced us to compete to be as close to perfect as we can with billions of people around the world. If I didn’t fear having a dead-end future, I would drop out and spend my time way more worthwhile than learning who the Roman emperor was in 409. Conformity into society significantly impacts my everyday life because as much as I try to break through it, I realize I am just as much like everyone else. I wish I could escape from it by running away for a few weeks and camping out in my car and eating off the minimum wage money that I have acquired. I wish I had the courage to isolate myself without caring about the consequences from my parents and missing school. I hate the feeling of living my life to be just another number in the honor roll or to pay tuition at a college where the teachers won’t even know my name.
Like Thoreau I decided to simplify my life by giving up technology for a day. By giving up technology I discovered how dependent I am of it. Technology surrounds us and by giving it up I felt cut off from the world and occasionally confused, about what to do with myself. I actually had to occasionally cheat to use the computer for homework or call a parent, and I realized that even though technology leads us into stress and worry, it also helps us out every day. Technology stresses people out because they now have so many things they are able to do and creates so many opportunities. By eliminating it, I had less distractions, and more time to appreciate the simple things in life. But, technology does help us stay in contact with one another and use our resources to learn about the world around us. I believe that I will continue to limit the use of the television. Though it does provide news about the world around me, it creates noise and another distraction that takes me away from what's going on around me.
I decided to give up facebook for a few days. I didn't look at it all for a few days and deleted it off of my phone. It was a little werid at first but I actually was glad that I did it. It allowed to focus more on what I am doing rather then worry about everyone else. It has made life a little bit simpler without using it all the time. I haven't given it up completely but now I rarely use it and only for specific things. I would find myself wasting time or distracting myself with it when other things were going on. That doesn't happen anymore and I'm happy with the results and what came from this. "Our life is frittered away with detail" (Thoreau 237)
I decided that I would take 30 minutes to sit outside in nature leave my cell phone and any type of technology behind. As I sat there I thought about the things that I need to accomplish in the near future. It actually made me anxious the whole time and I just wanted to go back to technology because with it I can get things accomplished. If it was a time where I didn't have anything to accomplish or very little I probably would have been able to actually enjoy my time and think about something relaxing.
Fidning peace and serentiy is something that I have struggled finding my entire life. Being someone who always needs something to do and ususally never has a moment to myself to think, this task was extremely foregin and unique to me. Being out in nature with no form of communication was peaceful and weird for me. It was a good time to clear my head and think to myself, not while I was texting, or checking my facebook. I also felt very distant from the world jsut for those few hours. It was amazing to me to feel the distacne that I could have from the world just from not being connected technologically. It was a big eye opener for me to see how much I truly depend on my communictaion devices to stay connected to the world. From this, I came to conclusion that staying connected to people apart from just technologically is important these days, and it is something I need to do more.
During this week I had a commitment to stay at my house and help my mom with her Christmas party. When I am usually home I just stay in my room and listen to my I pod and wait for something to happen. I gave up my I pod so I actually helped. I didn’t like the silence in my room. I did not find it relaxing at all. So I would go downstairs and talk to my family and watch TV. The silence bugged me, I felt like I needed the background noise to help me focus. I did cheat a little because I had to turn it on at night so I could fall asleep. After laying there for 2 hours I decided to use my I pod. This showed me how uncomfortable I was with the quiet and how uncomfortable it made me feel. It also showed me how it never really seems like I am home because my mom and I had some nice conversations and we usually dont talk much.
I decided to give up using my phone for a few days which was actually really nice. Not having to text people back every 5 seconds and having to carry it with me everywhere felt like an escape from fast paced life. It also taught me that I could live without it. It is not completely necessary to have my phone with me everywhere I go and that was a good thing to realize. I found a good quote from Thoreau that describes living simply: "Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary to eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion." (Thoreau page 237)
Thoreau is an inspiration. He sees importantce in eliminating yourself from the damages of society. Nature allows him to find what he truley wants in life, and to find the things that actually should matter to you. Society is a harsh judgmental enviorment and more people should take more time devoted to nature and solitude. It really benefits a person. Nature gives a person something that can not be given any other way or by another person. It comes from soley that person, and the wilderness.
I was not able to do this experiment, because I was pretty busy and even taking thirty minutes would have been difficult to even accomplish anything. But I have done both before. I gave up facebook for 4 months, and I felt like I had a lot more free time and time to do what I needed and wanted to do, it made life simpler and a little more secluded because I wasn't constantly communicating with people. It was hard sometimes because I was left out of stuff and didn't get all the information, but overall it was very beneficial. I also have spent a complete sunset and Daniels park by myself, just embracing nature and evaluating me life. It was a nice break and it is something I plan to do more often. Because I just sat and enjoyed silence, beauty and nature all to myself. I took a notebook and just wrote my thoughts and ideas and it was a very freeing and cleansing experience.
During the summer I go to Lithuania. For part of my time there I spend in the country side. We stay in a little cottage that does not have running water, cell service or internet access. All of the drinking water comes from a well that simply has a bucket attached to a rope that you drop all the way down to get water and then must crank it all the way back up. For bathing there is a lake a couple miles away that we end up walking to everyday. This experience has let me to get to know others, nature and also myself better. For me it is a time to relax and let me ponder the ways of life like Thoreau. It takes me back to a life of simplicity and shows that living with such few materials can make your life more fulfilling.
Everyday I have a consistent routine of getting up at a certain time, getting ready for school, going to the same five or six classes everyday, coming home and working out or maybe spending time with friends. I usually start the afternoon with my homework; I will eat dinner and go to a youth group activity later in the night and come home to go to bed. Now there might be a few changes here and there in my daily routine but it is the same thing every single day. Life flies by so fast because we can get so caught up in our own little world. What are our needs? How can I be a better student/friend/sister/sports player? Every question we asks ourselves revolve around US. There have been many times in my life where I have taken days, weeks, or even months living in simplicity. Without a phone, the internet; electricity even. In these times I have questioned what my purpose in life is. Does life really revolve around my needs or sacrificing my needs for others? K.T. Jong quotes, "It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts." Just by taking the time to put all of the technology to side and living in simplicity we find our true meaning in life. While I was in Guatemala this summer, I did not have a phone, the internet, a car, etc... That was one of the best experiences of my life just because no one was interrupted by the "blaring sounds" of life. Instead we lived through the simplicity of one another's company and daily existence.
In my experiance i gave up games, my phone, and technology in general. This was okay for about the first 2 hours or so. Then it started to get on my nerves. After about 5 hours i could not stand it so i went back to my former life. This has increased my apreceation for the things we have and makes me think that Thoreau was insane for doing this, or mabey it was easier without the things that we have today.
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