Walden. Where I lived, and what I lived for.

Walden was a very intellectual man who decided to spend a year or so out in the basics of nature. He bathed in a pond, and lived in a tiny cottage with no neighbors within miles of him. Walden went to the outdoors to find the meaning of life or, in esence, to live his life. "I went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately, to front on ly essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what i had to teach, and not, when i came to die, discover that I had not lived". Walden lived in an era where you could ramble on, not having a point and people would think you were a genius. Now a days all books must have a point, all stories must have a plot. Waldens writings are very dragged on to say a simple thing, like the sky is blue. He would explain how he was looking at the sky, what time of day, where he was, what he was thinking and the souroundings were included. He has good points though at one time he says: "why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry". I like that saying because why should be run through life without stopping for a second to enjoy it. We humans tend to have to look forward to something but, what he's saying, is to not have anything. He wants us to live life as naturaly as possible. Paragraph 14 is my favorite one because of the great metaphors he uses when he talks of waking up with intelligence. He wants us to learn to awaken not just physically but mentally in the mornings. He says: "All memorable events, i should say, transpire in the morning time and in a morning atmosphere. He asks us why we throw off sleep because, if we were to get sleep we might be able to accomplish somthing that day. He also says; " The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only on in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life". Walden wants us to wake up and to live life as purely as possible. In paragraph 22 he talks of not knocking under and going with the stream. To me, this means work against the status quo. Do not do something just because everyone else is doing it. He also says; " If the bell rings why should we run?". I think he means if disaster strikes why should we panic and run, we should aproach our problems head on instead of running when the bell rings. Walden asks us to stop doing what we've always done, step out of the line and observe nature and live life the best you can.