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Thoreau's Solitude

W

wmjbyatt

Lunatic from birth
Skwim said:
What is to live deliberately?

And what point was he trying to make?
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I would suppose that to live deliberately is to make every action a conscious and intentional action. To live deliberately, then, would be to not get swept along in the tide of life, for every moment to be important, to be aware of everything that one does, and to do it with purpose.

I don't think he WAS trying to make a point when he went to the woods... when he wrote about it afterwards, he was probably making some point about the value and correctness of radical self-reliance or some such thing.

K.Venugopal said:
What point did he miss?
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That deliberate living can happen anywhere, that to retreat to the woods in order to live deliberately is as silly as living passively in the city. He seemed to have forgotten that all one has to do in order to live deliberately is live deliberately. It doesn't require the woods, it doesn't require anything but itself.
 
W

wmjbyatt

Lunatic from birth
He did advocate simple living (though I'm not sure I can be convinced that that phrase means anything), but the exact quote from Walden is:

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 lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
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But see, life is all that is. There is no reduction of life to its barest essentials. Life has no barest core, it is all that it is and all that we make of it, ya know?
 
Scarlett Wampus

Scarlett Wampus

psychonaut
Its easier to learn to live deliberately in relative isolation than with the hustle & bustle of city life. It takes concentration to live deliberately - to be aware of each moment and be fully engaged & present in it without becoming distracted by trivial or vapid things that sap your purposeful attention. You need to continuously refocus your attention back to such a task for considerable time before it starts to make an impact. Even in quiet solitude this is difficult. How much more so in a busy office or on a noisy street? Even people experienced at living deliberately will seek smaller periods of quietude to regain a sense of balance & focus.
 
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Smoke

Smoke

Done here.
wmjbyatt said:
That deliberate living can happen anywhere, that to retreat to the woods in order to live deliberately is as silly as living passively in the city. He seemed to have forgotten that all one has to do in order to live deliberately is live deliberately. It doesn't require the woods, it doesn't require anything but itself.
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I think you may have missed his point.He says it was his intent to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach." There was more to it than just deliberate living. He was trying to simplify, reduce expenses, and take time to reflect and observe. He didn't live out in the middle of nowhere, and he certainly didn't live as a hermit. He lived on the edge of town, and he received visitors and went to visit his friends in turn.

I'm not sure just what's supposed to be so misguided about simplifying your life and reducing expenses.
 
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