Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Civil Disobedience offer thought-provoking insights into a life unencumbered by societal norms, compelling me to revisit my favorite passages throughout. Thoreau’s point of view is that of a man who is unbothered by society. While living at Walden, Thoreau explored the inert beauty that can be found in self reliance, deep introspection, and nature.

Thoreau, despite writing so fondly of his time at Walden, left the lake and surrounding woods after 2 years. He went on to live a philosophers life; writing essays, giving lectures, and being an active abolitionist (Henry David Thoreau Wiki).

Non Participation

In Walden, Thoreau gives life to contemplations typically reserved for quieter moments, choosing a path of deliberate non-participation in societal norms. The book made me contemplate the financial and emotional tax of living in a society.

This spending of the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet.

Complete disconnection, often fantasized about in our hyper-connected world, was Thoreau’s reality for two transformative years. Those that are fortunate enough maybe get to experience complete disconnectedness on an annual retreat. Thoreau managed this for two years, a stark contrast to the pervasive connectedness of the 21st century, which constantly diverts our attention from the present.

One’s existence in society naturally leads to internal pressures. What if you could relieve these pressures by keeping society at a distance? Thoreau not only did this in living at Walden but took it a step further in refusing to pay his taxes. A decision that ultimately landed him in prison. In his essay, Civil Disobedience, Thoreau seems to apply his learnings at Walden to the Political arena.

Opposing slavery and the Mexican War, Thoreau’s peaceful protest through tax refusal underscored his commitment to civil disobedience. Civil Disobedience explains the rationale behind the Act. Thoreau viewed active participation (paying taxes) responsible for the acts committed by the government; such as waging war on Mexico and enforcing Slavery.

The essay Civil disobedience was especially thought provoking. I find the sentiment behind peaceful opposition admirable and understand why it had a notable effect on historical figures.

Self-Reliance

Thoreau’s 2 year journey into self-reliance was as much a study in solitude as it was a rejection of societal expectations. Thoreau expressed a desire to truly understand what it meant to live. Through the dispensing of anything extra Thoreau was able to achieve, at least for his two years at Walden, a simple, self sustaining existence. The cottage that Thoreau lived in while at Walden was built by his own two hands. Thoreau also farmed during this time; surving off a modest diet of rice and beans.

If I wished a boy to know something about the arts and sciences, for instance, I would not pursue the common course, which is merely to send him into the neighborhood of some professor, where anything is professed and practiced but the art of life; – to survey the world through a telescope or a microscope, and never with his natural eye; to study chemistry, and not learn how his bread is made, or mechanics, and not learn how it is earned….

In reading Walden I understood how one could find beauty in self-reliance. There is an ineffable feeling you get using something you built on your own. Even if the build is somewhat mediocre (often my case). I like to think I could do what Thoreau did and build my own shelter and farm to sustain myself but fortunately don’t think I’ll ever have to put that to the test.

Beyond the self-reliance and the lack of external obligations that allowed for Thoreau’s mind to wander so spectacularly. It was being unencumbered with the outside world and being able to focus entirely on living. Once he met his needs of food and shelther his mind was free to wander far beyond Walden.

To be alone was something unpleasant. But I was at the same time conscious of a slight insanity in my mood, and seemed to foresee my recovery. In the midst of a gentle rain, while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in the every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant, and I have never though of them since.

Existence

Throughout Walden, Thoreau unveils the inherent beauty of the natural world and the profound impact of exploring one’s existence within it. Instead of letting the business of the day consume his life, for two years at Walden, Thoreau was consumed by his existence and the world around him. As readers we’re left with a book that shows us that ,through deep introspection, one can achieve happiness in being self-sufficient. Thoreau’s eloquent reflections transform Walden into a compelling narrative on personal fulfillment beyond societal constraints.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.

There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hands. I love a broad margin to my life. Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller’s wagon on the distant highway , I was reminded of the lapse of time.