Walking – Thoreau

A pilgrimage, a person going to the holy land that never goes to the holy land
Only a few people actually truly engage in the art of walking
Do not follow the paths and roads, it is a wandering, a saunter (like a camel)
Walking within a ten mile radius will never give you the same journey
He also talks a lot about how he would perhaps fade away if he was sedentary, and can not understand how people can work all day while sitting on their butts... some people actually like the artisan act that comes from sitting and painting and stuff like this
“Slow Paced” is a strength through their attention to detail, the observation while walking is an analytical approach to writing
(I think that more people in this world wish they could truly walk in this way..... some say they do not have enough time in a day to do this, some do not give themselves enough time)
(The pilgrimage thought is a beautiful way to embrace the world around him, giving reasons to walking for him other than to just exercise)
What is the licium? Lycium? Lisium? That the teacher is talking about that Emerson and Thoreau spoke at? I need to look that up...
He says if we imagine it as a recitation, rather than a written work, than it might help us get through it.
(He doesn't like civilization without ever actually leaving it) He did not want to live alone, away. He wanted to live simply. Able to foster his own identity, reality and such.
Is he advocating that all of us should move away and have minimal contact with society? No, he says he does not want everyone to do as he did. He wants them to follow their own paths, their own dreams, and their own wants. He wants to simplify if we are going to get out of the lives we are stuck in.
He says that people are stuck in quiet desperation. He is not looking down upon us, condescendingly, but he is concerned about the way they are living.

Born in 1817, just in time for “The Flowering of New England”.
Emerson the father of the writers, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville and such.
Attended Harvard as a young man, graduated 1837.
Moves back home, helps father with pencil manufacturer.
Brother died of infection from razor cut.
Didn't know what to do with his life.... so he started looking around and saw that people were not living like he thought they should be living. So he decided to study it, and look into it.
He worked as a surveyor, walked around and spent a long time in nature.
He lived at Walden pond for 2 years, 2 months.
Bit of tuberculosis at age 45.
Lived in town as a normal citizen for about another 15 years before he died.

He increasingly came to know nature as offering more for life than civilization.
“Poetry mirrors nature”
The village eccentric.
He thinks everyone should wake up to the fact that, “Hey, this is your life man!”
The connection between nature and writing. It is bound with it.
Part four is the place in “Nature” - Emersons, where the idea between language and nature is adapted.
The differences in writing styles reflects the differences in their thoughts on nature.
Where does transcendentalism fit in with the religious thoughts of this day? We will talk about it soon enough. Their views, Emersons, are a lot more relaxed than fire and brimstone, but not relaxed enough. He had thoughts of where they needed to go from here.