“We must learn to reawaked and keep ourselves awake, not my mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact tan the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. “
This is an excerpt from the reading of David Thoreau that we discussed in class on Tuesday. Our class focused a lot our discussion on the idea of living every second of the day deliberately. Why do we do the things we do? Why do we eat if we really aren’t hungry? Why do we talk, if we have nothing important or intelligent to say? Why do we shower if in a larger scale, we aren’t that dirty? After reading the excerpt I thought these questions to myself. We all do these things without even thinking why. Generally we eat around lunchtime and dinnertime. Our mind tells us what time it is before it tells us if we are hungry or not. Thinking about my life, I really don’t know what I do deliberately. I do homework because my teachers tell me to. I work because there are things that I have a desire for and I want money. I do a lot of things in life because I am told to and because it is the “norm”, but in reality I have no actual desire to do those things at all.
The quote in the beginning of this blog signifies, to me, the importance of embracing life. I feel like I wake up dreading the day ahead of me. Falling asleep at night I plan my day and what I HAVE to do and at what time. There is a major stress factor in all of that. I wish I could go to sleep at night peacefully, no thoughts racing through my mind, and be able to wake up in the morning with no expectations of others.
If I wasn’t in school and I didn’t have to get a job and a degree, I would want to take this opportunity, not challenge, to live at peace with myself in the woods. It would be very hard to get used to. Boredom and emptiness would definitely be challenging obstacles, but in the end I feel like the experience overall would be refreshing. I feel like I lose myself quite frequently in today’s society. I don’t know why I wear certain make up certain ways, buy clothing or imitations of clothes worn by celebrities, or act a certain way. Living in solitude, I would have to inspiration other than my own thoughts. I would learn more about myself than I ever could, living in today’s world. I would form my own opinions on things with no input from others. I would find my own beauty in things without society telling me that a certain thing is more beautiful than others. I would develop a true sense of self that I wouldn’t be able to while dealing with the influence of others.
I think the key take home point of all of these authors is generally the same and that is that we need to find a balance in our lives between nature and technology. Lasn focused a lot of detachment from nature, and how we can’t live without technology. Our society would have a lot of trouble living without technology, but imagine the stress that would be taken away if those negative aspects of technology did not exist.
I agree that if we didn't have technology that life would be a lot less stressful. We always have to worry about what other people think, but why? Who gave them the power to dictate what we do with our lives? Because essentially that is what they are doing and we were the ones that gave them the power. They are telling us what we can and can't; do, wear, eat, buy, the list goes on. And we can't fight against it because there is too large of a majority that goes with it which makes it hard to go against the rest.
ReplyDeleteThat actually sounds pretty nice. I agree that it probably would be very peaceful to not have all the expectations of society on my shoulders. It would be nice to do things when you wanted to do them and not live my others expectations or opinions of us. However personally I want to make a difference in people's lives, I want to change things, I want to travel, see places make friends, there is so much I want to do in life and I can't do it if I was stuck in a cabin. I know that society has its drawbacks and the world's not perfect but I would rather be in this messed up society of ours surrounded by people I love than in a cabin learning about myself. I think that it would be great to find a balance between nature and technology but I just don't think its going to happen, because who determines how much nature is enough or how little technology is enough? As for Missy's comment, I don't think that we give people as you say "the power to dictate what we do" I really don't think we can control how we feel about people's opinions. People are always going to have their own opinions and they are all going to share them, it's in our nature. It really stinks that people judge us and tell us how to live but that’s how things work. I also don't know if we didn't have technology that things would be simpler. Imagine this you spend all night hand writing your paper because there is no computers, it is snowing really heavy and you don't have email, you don't have a computer, no cell phone there is no way your professor or dean could contact you to tell you whether class was cancelled or not, so you dredge across campus in the pouring snow to sit there and find that your professor never shows up, I don't know about you but to me that’s stressful!
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean about waking up and being like "ugh, another day..great" and planning your entire day out before you go to bed at night. It is extremely tiring and monotonous, we forget to actually enjoy things. Some days i spend the entire day studying, because like you said "were told to" and i barely notice whether it is sunny or raining, until i'm forced to go outside because 'its time' to eat, or 'its time' to go to class. Life probably would be a lot less stressful without so many societal norms, 'times' for this and that. I think we would find a reemergence of individuality if these norms ceased to exist.
ReplyDeleteIt is refreshing to see someone challenge the basic elements of our society. Even something like success is created by our society. Who's to say you couldn't be more happy with your life if you only had enough money to buy yourself food. This sounds like "poor" initially, but Thoreau had no more money than this type of person and lived a life that I would call rich. The need for this money is fueled by the need to be part of the society to which we belong.
ReplyDeleteI think boredom and emptiness are obstacles that would be overcome as soon as one realizes that boredom is stemming from the need for constant stimulation which we receive from this environment and which is not needed, and that emptiness is merely a feeling from being separated from the facade of a community that we had in our daily lives. While were talking about living our lives in the woods and the way we want why not include my family, the only people I would actually need to happy?
I agree with you. I think without technology there would be a big weight lifted off of our shoulders. We wouldn't have to worry about trends and how to keep up with them. I also think we can't live without technology though because of the fact that its an important part in our everyday lives. It would be better for us to balance nature and technology than to take technology away completely and almost live like cavemen.
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