I took a walk after my rugby practice the other day after the team left because I found it to be the most alone I had been all day, free of most noises, free of people and free to be alone with my thoughts. The sky was turning an eerie gray and I felt little raindrops begin to fall on my skin as I started to walk towards the surrounding tree line. I came to the assumption that most people who had been in the same situatio would have turned around and walked home or to the nearest shelter for fear of being rained on. There was something that made me stay though. I was intrigues by the way the slight breeze would weave its way through the trees and how the leaves would turn and quiver, as if shivering. The sky became darker and the raindrops more frequent, and as I continues to walk, I became more and more entertained, listening for the slightest sound or change in the surroundings. I looked up to the sky to feel the rain on my face. What I came to notice was that the more the sky opened up and the more it rained down, the more I began to feel insignificant. Even the trees seemed to huddle and pull together and the grassed reached up as if eager to quench its thirst. I stood there, clearly amazed as what was going on. In those fifteen minutes, the earth has completely changed from being calm and completely came to life. I became what felt like the smallest, most insignificant organism caught in the chaos that we call "mother nature."
I really enjoyed Thoreau's peice and was especially interested in the idea of necessity versus luxary and the idea that, "Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensible, but positive hindrancesto the elevation of mankind" (pg 12). My first question is how do we seperate the comforts of life away from the necessities of life? If we consider clothing, shelter and food the necessities of life, then do we consider finer clothing, gourmet food and more extravagant forms of shelter the comforts of life? The conclusion that I drew from Thoreau was that this is indeed the case, claiming that, "When a man is warmed by the several modes which I have described, what does he want next? Surely not more warmth of the same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses, finer and more abundant clothing, more numerous and more incessant fires, and the like" (pg. 13). The idea that humans are constantly wanting something more and better than what they have I feel has become such a pressing problem in our current society, especially with the increase in technology. People are never satisfied with what they have and I feel like this is what Thoreau spends a good amount of time digging into, claiming that, "By the words, necassary of life, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from savagness , or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it" (pg. 10). I think that by forgetting what the "necassary of life" include, we lose sight of the bigger picture, trying to make ourselves bigger and better than anything. Because of this, I think that most of us rarely encounter moments like i did on my walk, realizing that humans are merely a fraction of what Earth gives life and sustanability to and because of our constant greed for the next best thing, we are ruining what necessities we do have. I think sometimes that if we could do something similar to Thoreau and simplify our lives, we would learn to appreciate the small things more and find our place in nature, rather than be in constant struggle to prove how great we are.
Walking in the ran is something that I enjoy to do every so often. It can be very relaxing. I always laugh when it rains while I am at work because some people REALLY do not like to be rained on. I have customers come through the drive-thru who will roll their window up as quickly as possible between every single transaction. I am very quick, so the customer will begin to roll up their window and will not even get it half way up before I give them back their receipt or hand them their order. Some people will even go to the extent of not stopping at the intercom, driving up to the drive-thru window, and honking at my crew so that their car window is open as little as possible during the rain. Rain is just, rain. I don't understand why people try so hard to avoid it.
ReplyDeleteFeeling small or insignificant is something I can relate to. I go for walks every night and always feel so tiny when the stars are out. It isn't a sad feeling, though, but it can seem overwhelming at times!
I have to say that I liked Thoreau, too. I think that people have in a way MADE things like technology, designer clothes, huge houses, and etc necessities. We (as in people in general) rely on so many of these things that it is becoming difficult for some of us to live without them. Kids will be made fun of or excluded from their peers if their clothing is outdated, old looking, or out of style. Yes, it's true that people do not need such things to live in the physical sense, but we now almost need these things to enjoy living. Thoreau had brought up how living for real (enjoying life, learning, and not being a slave to certain things) is what is important, but I think that for many of us these material things are what make life enjoyable. I wonder what Thoreau would write about our society if he were alive today?
It’s amazing how small rain can make someone feel isn’t it? I think that may be one of the reasons people run from it and don’t like dealing with it. It is something that they cannot control, yet it still exists, and they let it threaten their days, and threaten all of what Thoreau deems the necessities: clothing, shelter and food. A decent rain storm would be good for a garden, possibly not so good for the driver driving the truck transporting the food however… A rainstorm wouldn’t threaten clothes and it might even make them cleaner. A rainstorm doesn’t even threaten a house unless it is accompanied by hail or high wind, or we just plain get too much of it and the basement starts to flood. Rain does indeed threaten us though, if we get soaked through we get cold, and we lose that heat which Thoreau found we value so much because it is so essential to our being. It seems to me that you, carab and I view rain in a much more philosophical light, for Thoreau said regarding the philosopher, “He is not fed, sheltered, clothed, warmed, like his contemporaries.”(13) We can walk in the rain and enjoy it without letting it take our warmth. We do not get swept up in the idea of ornamentation for ornamentation’s sake even though society may be caught up in these “luxuries.” (12) At the very least we do not let them control all aspects of our lives, because if we did we would run from the rain and not embrace it. We would care more about what our clothes looked like when they were soaked through, or whether that new dish on the roof would move and mess up our TV reception because of the wind, or we’d complain about not being able to go out to eat because it is raining. To think that is an excuse we actually use, “I can’t because it’s raining”.
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