Leave this field empty if you're human:. I take it as one way to follow my dreams. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Skip to content Henry David Thoreau. Related posts: Some people are so poor all they have is money Comparison is the thief of joy Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need Goodhart's law explains why so many people aren't happy. Previous Post Previous post: Travel workout plan. Next Post Next post: The best free meditation app. Are you still at your job? Is it a warning against being directed by fear instead of the heart.
Is it a warning against quitting? Is it the lack of hope. Such a profound proclamation of human existence by such a wise man. So tonight I decided to look it up and discovered that 1. The meaning is quite debated. This is an excerpt from his passage. Please Comment your thoughts below. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats.
A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. I think what he means is that most men never figure out what they really want to do, and so they never do it and are therefore miserable. Hence, wisdom is not to do desperate things: Do things that make you happy instead. I should have read Walden long ago but never did.
The closest I came was laying next to a friend on a beach under a too-hot sun while he read it. I was reading How much effort would you put forth to get out of that place?
For those who have been there, what did it take to break out of the trance, to believe you could be free? What words of encouragement provided the spark to start again? Did you do it yourself, or did someone else help you? A great number of people were simply resigned to living their lives in the same manner as their parents, doing the same jobs, and passing their misery to the next generation. His solution was to quit the world as he knew it, and live alone, consoled by the bravery of the minks and muskrats.
Basically, he wrote off humanity and embraced living alone in the wild. That may be a viable solution for one person, but not a good solution for a society. What would happen if we all did that? In addition, his solution did nothing to ease the misery of anyone else, it only eased his.
Again, that may be a viable solution for one person, but not for a whole society. So, as a member of a society, what can we do? The first step is to emancipate ourselves.
Where in your life do you feel helpless, desperate, or even resigned to your fate? Why do you believe that? Take a moment and write down the reason or reasons you belive it to be true. Now what proof do you have that the belief is true? Write down each example and leave some space after it.
Do this for every belief on your list. Be as complete and thorough as you can. Once you have exhausted every example you can recall, find at least one counter-example for each. With the counter-examples in mind, does the belief remain, or has it been destroyed? With the belief destroyed, what belief best represents the counter-examples? Assume for a minute you do lack these things.
Does that mean you should give up? Naysaying is attractive because it encourages inaction; it allows you to be lazy and avoid the unfamiliar. Fatalism is another excuse for inaction. Spend your time thinking about the things you can change — and work to change them.
Start slowly, and work from there. Quiet desperation is dangerous. It tends to feed on itself as time goes on. Posted in Articles. Thank you again from Frank. We are all striving for an ideal that in reality does not exist. I am now 72 and have learned this.
Having dreams and pursuing them does not rid us of the quiet desperation. I have found a better way that is not religious.
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