Living Deliberately

I think that Emerson and Thoreau have many valid points.  One of Emerson's overall main points is individuality.  He writes, "Nothing is at last sacred, but the integrity of your own mind."  He finds it important to be a "noncomformist", express your own ideas, and think for yourself.  If something makes you happy then you should do it, and not care what other people think. If everyone becomes the same, we lose diversity. One of my favorite quotes from him is,"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keep with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude...".   I think this is a very honest statement that most everyone would agree with.  It is very easy to be your true self when no one is around, but when you are with a crowd its hard to be different from them.  I think this could apply to friendships in our generation today.  You know someone is true friend when you can act like your 'solitude self' around them.

One of Thoreau's main points is simplicity.  He writes, "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry".  Everyone needs to slow down and appreciate the world around them.  We need to forget about what we do not have, and think more about what we do have.  This is what Thoreau was trying to prove when he lived in solitude for a year. I will be honest and say that I could never do that for a year.  However I could definitely do it for a couple weeks or month if I had another person with me.  I love going camping or spending time at a cabin.  It is very relaxing and fun to have no schedule, no cell phone service, and only the sounds of nature to listen to.  Somehow your lunch or dinner tastes so much better when you go fishing, and cook up your catch of the day.

I think if someone were to go through an experience like Thoreau did for a year they would definitely learn a lot about themselves.  You would learn things like how much independence and will power you have.  I know that these would be the biggest challenges for me.  You also would have a lot of time to think about your life, and what is important.  If you really miss something that you gave up, and you think about it a lot it is obviously something that is truly important to you.  However, you also might realize there is a lot of possessions you have that you could live without.  An experience like this could let you realistically simplify your everyday life.