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.
-- H. D. Thoreau
People sometimes ask me what gave me the idea to travel. It seems a crazy thing to say, but I wouldn't be on the road today if I hadn't read "Walden" by Thoreau 13 years ago. Going out to Walden Pond yesterday and seeing what Thoreau saw, walking where he walked and putting my feet in the waters of Walden, was deeply fulfilling.
View of Walden Pond from the site of Thoreau's cabin in the woods.
Thirteen years ago, I was starting my "grown up" life: I had graduated college and gotten a job. It payed well. I liked it well enough. I was on The Path. But something wasn't right, and I couldn't put my finger on it; I just knew that it was going to continue being not right unless I did something. So I read. A lot. Everything I could get my hands on.
I can't remember why I picked up that trade paperback copy of "Walden" at Twice-Sold Tales in downtown Seattle, but it came at the right time. It changed how I thought about life.
Walden Pond
In "Walden", Thoreau relates his experience living in the woods. Others will tell you it's a book about living simply and getting back to nature, the source of all morality. That's true, but it's not what really grabbed me. For me, it's more this:
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
--H. D. Thoreau
We're all born into a culture. We don't even see it most of the time, but it profoundly influences who we are. It's like religion: if your parents are Muslim, you're probably Muslim, too. Likewise, had you been born in a culture where the job/spouse/kids/house-in-the-'burbs/2-car-garage weren't the norm, you might be leading a completely different life. So how did you get here? Did you actively choose your life, or did you just accept the defaults?
By going out into the woods, Thoreau distances himself from his culture and so perceives it more clearly. Through his eyes we see that it can really be pretty absurd at times. Why do people break their backs working jobs they don't like to afford things they don't need? Why are houses so expensive? And fashionable clothes? Why do we think we need them? Why, why, why? Questions I hadn't even thought to ask.
Thoreau gleefully lobs philosophical grenades at the men of nearby Concord, MA, calling their lives, "lives of quiet desperation". That hurt. My life was one of quiet desperation, and I finally knew what had been bothering me.
I wasn't living deliberately.
Nothing dramatically changed after I read "Walden". I still went to work. I still payed my taxes. But I couldn't un-ask all those questions, and 13 years later I'm still finding my own answers. And sometimes my answers surprise even me. The journey continues.
Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
--H. D. Thoreau
