I Wish To Live Deliberately

I am taking a course this semester that is usually taken by most students when they are just starting school. It is a humanities course, it involves reading and discussing what you have read. I needed one more class to fill my schedule and I figured I like the professor teaching it so why not take the class. Each year he changes his themes for his classes, this year it is ecology, environment, and politics of the world. If you know me, I have strong opinions on all these things.

Anyways, our first reading assignment was Walden, by Henry David Thoreau. I read the chapters that we needed to read so I was ready to discuss and interpret what Thoreau was saying. There was a resounding distaste and genuine dislike of Thoreau's writing. Freshman students said they had to read each page a few times to begin to understand what he is saying and they grumbled that we still had several chapters to read.

My professor listened to the other students and discussed what they had said and then he came to me. I said, "I enjoyed it; is Thoreau my favorite author... no, but I appreciate the way he writes, the words he uses, his irony, symbolism, and use of rhetorical hyperbole's". Though a reader may not always like the styling that an author uses or what an author has to say, the reader can always find pieces in a book that offers something for them. I think if some of these students would have stopped and read aloud what they were reading and take away the 19 century speaking style there are things to learn from in this book.

I understand Walden is not an easy book to read and I am not saying I begin to understand everything that is written in this book but Walden emphasized the importance of solitude, contemplation, and finding a closeness to nature. He believed that man should be independent and not depend on worldly matters so much. Really, what he has to say is simple but just complex to read.

That is life, life becomes so complex and we become caught up in what the world expects but if we step back, take a breath, contemplate, and spend a few moments in silence, things begin to become clearer and a maybe a little bit simpler.

Maybe if this would have been my first class my attitude would have been different but I think I have learned to take a deep breath and try to appreciate all the knowledge that I have been given .....

"When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have
any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but
the shadows of the reality". ~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden