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How do Thoreau's words affect you personally?

#51: July - Aug. 2008 (Non-Fiction)
WildCityWoman
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DWill wrote:How does Thoreau (or Thoreau's words) affect me personally? Here are the five I come up with right now:

1. I always like to start with the artistry of his prose and the magnificent descriptions. To me, this is the best thing about Walden and the most important reason that it has endured as a classic book.

Are you inspired in your own writing (whatever kind of writing you do) by this work? Do his words and the way he puts them together inspire poems in you? Articles . . . essays? Maybe even some fiction/

2. He tells us that if we have within ourselves a leading or prompting that would take us in a direction different from that of our peers, we need to not ignore it but nurture it. If we are not so led, we at least need to respect, value, and encourage that quality in others. This helps me not to worry so much about staying in step or about being seen as eccentric.

That's good, Will - I think people are often shy of presenting their art, or ideas for fear people might think them as 'wierd', or see them as 'eccentric'.

If you worried about it, I'm glad Thoreau's helped you in this.


3. I think that in fitting ourselves to nature, as he did, we become more fully human. This is not different from becoming the animal we are. We are still bent on fitting nature to us.

And do you 'fit yourself to nature' . . . do you follow your instincts? Sometimes when we have back pain, we tend to want to sit in a way that's different, but more comfortable . . . that, to me, would be following your instinct.

Sometimes, we throw something into a stew pot - peanut butter, banana or some other item we think might give the meal just that little bit of a lift . . . if it tastes good, why not?


4. He showed us how material things get in the way of our becoming the humans and animals we should be. While I have never duplicated his experiment in living, his example does make me see the futility and waste of working for a superabundance. (Though in his eyes I would have a superabundance.) "A man is rich in proportion to the things which he can do without."

I like that particular line . . . he would probably agree with an old saying I know - skid row is a state of mind.

5. He let his whole being loose in his identification with nature. He didn't merely observe nature as a scientist would, but joined his own feeling to feeling he felt was also present in it. He claimed to be not a naturalist but a transcendentalist. (Something else admirable and inspiring about him--not anything I claim to be able to do.)
DWill
I don't think I could do it to the extent he did - even though he was within walking distance of other people's homes, he was still on his own and vulnerable.

I'm the kind that's afraid of bears, things that go bump in the night, manhole covers that might come loose and cause me to fall in - ha ha!
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Another thing I once did - I was fishing off a dock up north and i didn't have any worms for my hook . . . I went to our cabin and got some bacon - a piece of bacon looks just like something alive and delicious (to a fish, I figured) wiggling away in the water.

I did catch a fish - it was small, so I threw it back.

But it worked.
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Thoreau speaks of the 'desperate' . . . I guess it's the 'desperate' who can show us how to save money, how to use materials wisely.

My husband and I aren't doing too bad, money-wise, at this point in our lives - we're certainly not rich, or what you'd call 'well-off', but we are able to food in the fridge.

Still, we conserve . . . there's nothing like a bag of day-old donuts - they usually cost about 2 bucks at coffee shops. Some franchises aren't allowed to sell the day-olds, but when we see them, we opt for a bag, rather than buying two fresh ones. We can take them home and have some the next morning.

The owner of the building and lot where I do my gardening, doesn't like a lot of money spent - heh! heh! She just likes 'collecting it', y'know?

So I'm frugal when I buy for my gardening; I always keep a certain amount of leaves back, let them mulch into soil - I also prefer that kind of soil because it doesn't have any commercial ingredients in it - I like to cultivate what grows wild on the lot - a lot of the stuff you buy has 'weed' killer in it.
That would be the end of my wild violets!
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But that doesn't really tell you how 'Thoreau's' work is affecting my thoughts. These are things I've always done to save money.

What 'Walden' is doing for me is feeding a particular fantasy I have - it's a fantasy that I could make happen - all I'd have to do, is do it.

But I'm not in a position to do it, so it will have to remain a fantasy. I still 'live' this fantasy by writing about it . . . some little stories (rarely do I complete them - sorry), involve my protagonist as an older woman - a senior - travelling around the country from place to place, living as cheaply as possible.

I gotta' get to bed - it is 2:30 am here - so I'll enlarge upon this later.

BTW . . . anybody ever read 'Pilgrim's' story? No, not 'Timothy Findley's' Pilgrim.

The one I'm thinking about is an older woman who put on a backpack and took to the road . . . actually she called herself the 'Peace Pilgrim'.

http://www.peacepilgrim.com/

Thoreau would have loved this gal!
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DWill wrote
5. He let his whole being loose in his identification with nature. He didn't merely observe nature as a scientist would, but joined his own feeling to feeling he felt was also present in it. He claimed to be not a naturalist but a transcendentalist. (Something else admirable and inspiring about him--not anything I claim to be able to do.)
Beautifully put! Karma points for you!
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WildCityWoman wrote:Are you inspired in your own writing (whatever kind of writing you do) by this work? Do his words and the way he puts them together inspire poems in you? Articles . . . essays? Maybe even some fiction
I don't call myself a writer and certainly not a poet, but of course I like to write and I admire good writing. Thoreau does inspire me to try to achieve some of his effects. It's a matter of his rhythms and the concreteness and metaphorical richness of his sentences. I don't come anywhere close, but that's what a model is for, anyway.
And do you 'fit yourself to nature' . . . do you follow your instincts? Sometimes when we have back pain, we tend to want to sit in a way that's different, but more comfortable . . . that, to me, would be following your instinct.
I hadn't thought of it as following my instincts, but of course it could be that. Fitting ourselves to nature to me means mostly not so arrogantly trying to replace it with OUR stuff, as well as simply taking care of it.
I like that particular line . . . he would probably agree with an old saying I know - skid row is a state of mind.
In "Conclusion" he says this, that no matter how mean our condition, we can still appreciate the sunrise as well as any other. Don't think I'd go along with that extreme, though. We usually need a modicum of health and comfort to be able to enjoy finer things.
I don't think I could do it to the extent he did - even though he was within walking distance of other people's homes, he was still on his own and vulnerable.
I'm the kind that's afraid of bears, things that go bump in the night, manhole covers that might come loose and cause me to fall in - ha ha![/i]
Well, you are WildCITYWoman after all!
DWill
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Ha! Ha! Yes, Will . . . Wild City Woman - the user name is one I use everywhere - it comes from the name of my publication, and forums that go along with it (Wild City Times & Wild City Writers' Workshop).

I'm not that 'wild', really . . . right at this moment, I'm moving from forum to forum, site to site, testing out some new D-Link gadget Jeff plugged into my laptop . . . it does seem to work.

But it does 'show ta' go ya' . . . my dependence on technology and all the fixings of this modern day world is pretty strong.
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WildCityWoman wrote:But it does 'show ta' go ya' . . . my dependence on technology and all the fixings of this modern day world is pretty strong.
You are the city gal, but you could be right out of the country, from the way your lingo flows. You mange to combine the high-tech with the down & dirty, all while living in the big city, and I think this is a pretty big achievement. There are some exciting things happening in the cities, environmentally. I think of the living or green roofs on the high buildings. Do you have those in Toronto (hope I have the right city)?
Will
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Well, when I discuss on forums, I more or less write the way I talk . . . I'm no country bumpkin . . . my work before I 'retired' from it, was real estate law . . . when I write an article, an essay, I don't use slang or knock 'em dead with my country girl way of talkin'.

When I write fiction, I write my dialogue according to the way my character would speak. I don't use vulgarity unless the dialogue calls for it - if, for instance, I have two thugs in a pool hall and one of them sinks the white ball, well I certainly don't have him say 'Oh, gee'. My reader isn't going to buy that.

If I have a character who is a teacher of English, I give her the kind of dialogue you might expect, of course.

If you have pictured me as somebody sitting on her garden seat, elbows on my upper thighs, puffing on a cigarette while talking to somebody who has stopped by to chat, you've got it right. That's who I am.

I like people, respect them and am always straightforward in my speech. But I do not hide my true opinions for the sake of offending someone. If someone asks my advice on a problem (which often happens), I give it, even if I know it's not what they wanted to hear.

Sometimes I don't get asked for advice for a while, because of that - heh! heh! But in the long run, I'm respected for being honest . . .

I have no reason to lie to anyone. If it's something I don't want to talk about, I say so.

Anyway, enough about me.
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About sunsets . . . I have no problem with looking at a good sky when it's setting down for the night.

If I have other problems, or am distracted by something, I might not make a point of going outside to watch that sunset. But if it was right in front of me, and I wasn't happy, I'd appreciate the beauty, even if just to let the poetry feed my mind, giving food for my pen.

I've studied a lot of Buddhism in the past two years - haven't become one - I eat meat and eggs - still smoking (which I don't think the Buddha forbade). I haven't used alcohol for years, so I don't have any problem with abstaining from that.

The dharma talks have led me to an easier way of thinking things through.

Meditation helps a great deal too.
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