Literature’s Impact: What Our Forgotten Forefathers Have to Teach Us

I admit it - I, too, get caught up in the technological rat race.  I can’t go an hour without checking my email, maybe two without checking voicemail.  My iPad might as well be permanently welded to my hand some days.  In the modern world, we are blessed with countless amenities which add an invaluable layer of convenience to our daily lives.  Smart phones, high-speed internet, iPads... it’s funny to think that the first remote control was called “lazy bones” because the designers probably wondered - who are these people who can’t be bothered to get up off the couch?  Try buying a flat screen today that doesn’t include a remote control!  How quickly our luxuries become necessities.  This is not meant to disparage these modern conveniences, but rather, to consider some of the things that we may have lost in our rush to embrace the newest, latest and greatest.

Thoreau would likely have winced at many aspects of our modern world and our addiction to electronics.  During his two years, two months and two days living by Walden Pond in Concord, Thoreau tells us that he went to the Woods to live deliberately; to back life into a corner; to see if he could not learn what life had to teach, and not, when he came to die, discover that he had not lived.  Though life in the 1840s would probably appear somewhat quaint compared to our lightspeed lives of today, Thoreau decided that he needed to achieve separation from the customary lifestyle of his time in order to find the peace and serenity that can only be afforded by nature.  Walden is not about environmentalism.  Nor is it solely about nature.  Rather, Thoreau’s goal during his Walden experiment was to live life deliberately.  He had deduced that life for most people is simply a series of reactions to circumstances and situations beyond their control.  Thoreau expresses a sentiment about the quest for material wealth that is too often ignored in the hustle and bustle of our busy lives - by throwing all of our efforts into seeking material goods, and in chaining ourselves to our technological wonders, are we ignoring what our ultimate goals are?  Do we want to slave day and night to pay for the McMansions and technological amenities we tie ourselves to, or might it be better to slow down, re-evaluate, and see if we can simplify things a little?

What is lost when we cruise Facebook nine hours a day so we don’t miss the riveting status updates about friends mowing their lawns?  I’m not sure, but maybe this Summer it’s worth finding out.