Nature with Emerson and Thoreau
Nature is supposedly a place that calms the spirit and refresh the problems of everyday life. Well, that shocks the Huckleberry Finn out of me. On my fourth block class's nature experience, this sure was not the case. According to Emerson and Thoreau, I was suppose to become a "transparent eyeball" and "become one with myself." That almost sounds like Chinese to me because who really takes time to do that now a days. The only experience I managed to acquire was the laughter and non-terminating voices of my teenage peers. The dark maze which the ground of leaves created only made me cautious of where my feet were being placed the entire time. Seeing the various types of green plants, weeds, and whatever else was my sign to look for poison ivy. The thick walls of trees outlining the tiny pathway gave me just enough space to walk, until I reached the inner parts of the wood. The tall trees blanketed the entire floor of the woods, only letting tiny amounts of sun pierce through the condensed trees. As I lay on the nets of the ropes course and gaze around me I notice creepy spider webs hanging from a stick, talk about scary. I hate spiders. This experience was "supposed to be" about nature, but the over-powering thought of us just half a mile from the ruckus of T.L. Hanna High only weakened the purpose of going into the woods. Twenty minutes, only fifteen being spent in the woods, is not enough time to make a deep soul transformation.
Emerson was a man, who believed that nature could transform your life. Born in 1803 and dead by 1882, indeed he had what is considered a long life for that time, but a life full of mishaps and social withdrawal sums it up. How can we manage to get the same meaning from nature as someone who was a loner and never really grasped the little enthusiasms that society offered? Emerson says, "The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man an the vegetable." Who sits and daydreams about a relationship between a man and a vegetable? Not anyone normal, but someone who has nothing else to consume their time. With all the luxuries of today's society, a comparison of this sort is by far the last thing on one's mind. Frantically shopping, busily working, or roughly playing are only a few pastimes people encounter each day. The death of Emerson's wife, son, and best-friend may have also played a major part into why he examined all the microscopic aspects in nature. Since I have other means of consoling myself after a hardship in life, I don't turn to nature as Emerson did for a comforting place to forget all of society's adversities. Quoted from Emerson's story "Nature" he says, "The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood." In this quote he basically says a child can really relate and enjoy nature because of the child's innocence and worry free perspective of things. Children today grow up relatively quick compared to the children of Emerson's time. We are faced with issues like sex, violence, and peer pressure at an early age, thus we can't go into nature with that worry free perspective about things. The children in society are now forced to lose site of their innocence while growing into their adult attitudes towards things. So, applying that to Emerson's quote, there are not many people, child or adult, that really can let the elements of nature shine into their eyes and their hearts.
Thoreau was also a man who followed in Emerson footsteps by practicing Transcendentalism, and dedicating part of his life to living in the woods for two years. In the story from "Walden or Life in the Woods" Thoreau practices nonconformity and the importance of nature. He says, "...I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not live." He was willing to leave all modern life had to offer and go into total self-reliance of nature. Not many people, including myself, would be willing to give up Friday night football, or the luxury of the television to live alone like the cave man era. Thoreau was not in the majority of people living in modern life, but instead made a minority of just himself and nature. When I was in the woods, I did just the opposite. I was with my friends, Danyetta and Melody, basically the entire time. I did not practice nonconformity. Instead, I was in with a crowd. Thoreau also values all that nature offers because he strives to learn everything about anything that he can. He sees nature as a place to learn, while I see nature as a place to vacation or relax. In Thoreau's most famous essay, "Civil Disobedience", he writes, "The American government--what is it but a tradition though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity but each instant losing some of its integrity." Free thought is what I say to this quote. Free thought is exactly what I experience while in the woods. Although my friends and I were together, we had a little moment of quietness where I got time to think. I began to think of my homework, all the projects I had to do, and experiences that I had in the previous week. Even if I did not have a deep soul transformation, I did have a couple of seconds to just stop and think about my life.
Emerson and Thoreau have some very deep and logical assumptions on nature. The creepy crawlers, ropes course and dangling ropes did not help me become one with nature. The idea of nature being the key to becoming a "transparent eyeball" is not for me. Everyone has their way of broadening their horizon about life and the things it has to offer. For most people because of the luxuries in life and the modern temptations we don't turn to nature to help up us become nature observers. I am not saying we don't try to learn and become aware of non conformity, self-reliance, and free thought but that we just have different ways of doing so. Sorry to say, but Emerson's and Thoreau's ideas are left in the past centuries and replaced with other modern methods.
Nature is supposedly a place that calms the spirit and refresh the problems of everyday life. Well, that shocks the Huckleberry Finn out of me. On my fourth block class's nature experience, this sure was not the case. According to Emerson and Thoreau, I was suppose to become a "transparent eyeball" and "become one with myself." That almost sounds like Chinese to me because who really takes time to do that now a days. The only experience I managed to acquire was the laughter and non-terminating voices of my teenage peers. The dark maze which the ground of leaves created only made me cautious of where my feet were being placed the entire time. Seeing the various types of green plants, weeds, and whatever else was my sign to look for poison ivy. The thick walls of trees outlining the tiny pathway gave me just enough space to walk, until I reached the inner parts of the wood. The tall trees blanketed the entire floor of the woods, only letting tiny amounts of sun pierce through the condensed trees. As I lay on the nets of the ropes course and gaze around me I notice creepy spider webs hanging from a stick, talk about scary. I hate spiders. This experience was "supposed to be" about nature, but the over-powering thought of us just half a mile from the ruckus of T.L. Hanna High only weakened the purpose of going into the woods. Twenty minutes, only fifteen being spent in the woods, is not enough time to make a deep soul transformation.
Emerson was a man, who believed that nature could transform your life. Born in 1803 and dead by 1882, indeed he had what is considered a long life for that time, but a life full of mishaps and social withdrawal sums it up. How can we manage to get the same meaning from nature as someone who was a loner and never really grasped the little enthusiasms that society offered? Emerson says, "The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man an the vegetable." Who sits and daydreams about a relationship between a man and a vegetable? Not anyone normal, but someone who has nothing else to consume their time. With all the luxuries of today's society, a comparison of this sort is by far the last thing on one's mind. Frantically shopping, busily working, or roughly playing are only a few pastimes people encounter each day. The death of Emerson's wife, son, and best-friend may have also played a major part into why he examined all the microscopic aspects in nature. Since I have other means of consoling myself after a hardship in life, I don't turn to nature as Emerson did for a comforting place to forget all of society's adversities. Quoted from Emerson's story "Nature" he says, "The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood." In this quote he basically says a child can really relate and enjoy nature because of the child's innocence and worry free perspective of things. Children today grow up relatively quick compared to the children of Emerson's time. We are faced with issues like sex, violence, and peer pressure at an early age, thus we can't go into nature with that worry free perspective about things. The children in society are now forced to lose site of their innocence while growing into their adult attitudes towards things. So, applying that to Emerson's quote, there are not many people, child or adult, that really can let the elements of nature shine into their eyes and their hearts.
Thoreau was also a man who followed in Emerson footsteps by practicing Transcendentalism, and dedicating part of his life to living in the woods for two years. In the story from "Walden or Life in the Woods" Thoreau practices nonconformity and the importance of nature. He says, "...I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not live." He was willing to leave all modern life had to offer and go into total self-reliance of nature. Not many people, including myself, would be willing to give up Friday night football, or the luxury of the television to live alone like the cave man era. Thoreau was not in the majority of people living in modern life, but instead made a minority of just himself and nature. When I was in the woods, I did just the opposite. I was with my friends, Danyetta and Melody, basically the entire time. I did not practice nonconformity. Instead, I was in with a crowd. Thoreau also values all that nature offers because he strives to learn everything about anything that he can. He sees nature as a place to learn, while I see nature as a place to vacation or relax. In Thoreau's most famous essay, "Civil Disobedience", he writes, "The American government--what is it but a tradition though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity but each instant losing some of its integrity." Free thought is what I say to this quote. Free thought is exactly what I experience while in the woods. Although my friends and I were together, we had a little moment of quietness where I got time to think. I began to think of my homework, all the projects I had to do, and experiences that I had in the previous week. Even if I did not have a deep soul transformation, I did have a couple of seconds to just stop and think about my life.
Emerson and Thoreau have some very deep and logical assumptions on nature. The creepy crawlers, ropes course and dangling ropes did not help me become one with nature. The idea of nature being the key to becoming a "transparent eyeball" is not for me. Everyone has their way of broadening their horizon about life and the things it has to offer. For most people because of the luxuries in life and the modern temptations we don't turn to nature to help up us become nature observers. I am not saying we don't try to learn and become aware of non conformity, self-reliance, and free thought but that we just have different ways of doing so. Sorry to say, but Emerson's and Thoreau's ideas are left in the past centuries and replaced with other modern methods.
1 comment:
Hey BEST FRIEND!! lol
I loved this! I really like how you incorporated Emerson and Thoreau's views into your nature experience.
<3 your best friend =]
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