Modern Reliance

As I sat debating how to begin this post, I could think of no better way then to just dive in. After all these nature walks, self-reflection and thinking about the past, I had an interesting revelation. I continuously tried to compare myself to Thoreau and the Transcendentalists who thought deeply about nature and its relationship to our spirituality.

My thoughts took me to a place where I understood, or so I thought, where they were coming from. I could see how nature sparked their minds to think of a higher power, or a god. Then I got even more confident thinking that I was on the same plateau as these great thinkers of the 19^th century. That was, until I looked deeper. I thought “awesome! I’ve done a few walks in the woods while having deep thoughts.” What I did NOT think about was how two of my walks I had been fortunate enough to do further than 15 miles from where I live here at Carnegie Mellon. After my third walk is when I really got a sense of, “so, this is what Thoreau did on a daily basis.” But, then it occurred to me that it in fact was nowhere close to that.

How could my maximum time of 3-5 hours in the woods compare to him living there on a daily basis? Also, for my walks I was in different places thanks to the use of vehicles and public transportation. He walked the same beaten paths day in and day out. He wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to travel such great distances with such ease. My trips were planned on short notice; if Thoreau, or any person in his time, wanted to travel, the arrangements would need to be made well in advance taking into consideration many factors including weather, health, means of transportation, etc. For us, we can log onto the internet, book a flight and hotel and be gone in the morning.

Generally, I consider myself someone who does not rely on technology or modern luxuries in my everyday life, but truly comparing myself to these authors made me realize that having lived with all these things, I am not sure I could live without them. The cell phones, computers, mp3 players, DVD players, etc. While they did not have these things available to them, they seemed to survive just fine without them. I’m not sure I could have. And while I think of myself as a deep and thoughtful person, I have to wonder is it truly me having these thoughts? Are they actually original? Or are they just a product of readings, sights and other outside influences? While I understand that certain experiences and people of the past have obviously helped shape my thoughts, it still scares me to wonder if they are sincerely mine or just today’s version of repeated sentiments.

I don’t mean to say that nobody has previously shared any or all my beliefs, but more I am questioning the idea of us completely lacking the ability to think for ourselves in our current world based on the fact that we have so much information available to us and being given to us at any point in time thanks to the sophisticated technologies around us that were not around 150 years ago.