Whoa Thoreau

I am really enjoying Thoreau right now. Reading the essay Economy is really great. I can’t believe sometimes the texts we are asked to digest as teenagers that we just don’t have the context for. Reading about Thoreau’s economy is so much more poignant as an adult who needs to earn money and maintain a shelter and afford food and cover my nakedness. But it is ringing so true to me now – he cuts apart the function of education where youths go to “play” at life, education serving to encourage people to analyze life when it was once meaningful to actually live life. He criticizes the excesses people make themselves poor to afford, noting that you probably wouldn’t freeze to death in your lean-to, but you might stress yourself into an early grave fending off the relentless hounding of creditors. What I’m waiting for in Walden is a lay-out of the proper priorities of life. Would Thoreau condone owning a piano? Would he view piano-playing as a worthy undertaking? You generally have to own a piano to practice playing piano. I frequently try to articulate for myself the correct nature of a human’s relationship to material possessions and it is just so slippery. I am confident that personal progress should evolve away from material possessions, in the sense that we should be getting over the idea that nice cars and pretty clothes have anything to do with making us happy. What about experiences? What type of “experience” should we seek to afford? Travel or trips to beaches and skiing vacations? Are these more worthy as material expenditures than acquiring more stuff?

I wrote a paper on this topic in law school. Maybe I can work on it a little more, and add Thoreau’s point of view in there, and try to figure out what I really think about this question.