Transcend: Thoreau and Emmerson
Introduction
Our current time is accelerated. Everything moves quickly; far more quickly than in the time of the Transcendentalists. If either of the Transcendentalist writers Thoreau or Emerson could see what the world has become they would be absolutely horrified. We continue to increase our speed and yet it seems that the faster we go, the more impatient we become.
No one has any time to stop and smell the roses. No one has the time to appreciate for a moment how awe inspiring and wondrous this short life we have been given really is. The universe we live in is never ending with infinite possibilities and wonders. And yet humanity continues to ignore the magnificence of our fragile, life giving island home in the vast ocean that is the cosmos.
“The man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”
Henry David Thoreau, Journal, March 11, 1856
By their very nature, simple pleasures are easy and uncomplicated. Because of this effortless quality, simple pleasures like reading a book or just being with my friends can make me very happy. One could say that I am easily pleased. Make me a good cup of tea and I will appreciate it more than you know.
It seems to have become human nature to get too absorbed in the complexity of our daily lives. Many become so fixates in material possession that they forget those simple, easy pleasures that are so important and can be so fulfilling. Simply being where the natural world is yet preserved, and being able to see the variety and majesty of our world exhilarates me. That is the sort of pleasure that has such an innate and almost primitive ability to make people happy “The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836, 1849
Most adults have lost the ability to find beauty and miracle everywhere in the world that almost all children enjoy in their formative years. Almost anyone you ask will tell you that they remember a time when
Our current time is accelerated. Everything moves quickly; far more quickly than in the time of the Transcendentalists. If either of the Transcendentalist writers Thoreau or Emerson could see what the world has become they would be absolutely horrified. We continue to increase our speed and yet it seems that the faster we go, the more impatient we become.
No one has any time to stop and smell the roses. No one has the time to appreciate for a moment how awe inspiring and wondrous this short life we have been given really is. The universe we live in is never ending with infinite possibilities and wonders. And yet humanity continues to ignore the magnificence of our fragile, life giving island home in the vast ocean that is the cosmos.
“The man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”
Henry David Thoreau, Journal, March 11, 1856
By their very nature, simple pleasures are easy and uncomplicated. Because of this effortless quality, simple pleasures like reading a book or just being with my friends can make me very happy. One could say that I am easily pleased. Make me a good cup of tea and I will appreciate it more than you know.
It seems to have become human nature to get too absorbed in the complexity of our daily lives. Many become so fixates in material possession that they forget those simple, easy pleasures that are so important and can be so fulfilling. Simply being where the natural world is yet preserved, and being able to see the variety and majesty of our world exhilarates me. That is the sort of pleasure that has such an innate and almost primitive ability to make people happy “The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836, 1849
Most adults have lost the ability to find beauty and miracle everywhere in the world that almost all children enjoy in their formative years. Almost anyone you ask will tell you that they remember a time when