If life is a journey, then where are you headed? If life is a journey, what are you traveling with? If life is a journey, are you traveling alone or are others traveling along with you?
I have been reading Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”. It is an interesting story of his adventures for two years in a small cabin of his own building living as simply as possible. All the while he writes his philosophy of how he sees things. His conclusion is that we could all live much more simply and happily than we do.
I’ll admit that I have to agree with what he says. Very often our things don’t add one bit of pleasure to our lives. Rather they can keep us enslaved caring for and paying for them. We have gotten into the bad habit of owning way too many things. It is the modern way. And it seems to be the post-modern way, also. It makes me wonder if perhaps it is time to think of a new way.
Don’t get me wrong; I like stuff just as much as the next person. But in looking at the amount of stuff we have all accumulated and the amount of the stuff that is just clutter, it makes one wonder what life could be like with a lot less. In light of the current cost of energy and the fact that we are rapidly depleting our energy resources it makes one think of when times were simpler and we didn’t have so much and didn’t travel about constantly.
The other reality that has struck me as I have considered what we might be forced to collectively consider is what will we do without the energy sources that we currently have? We are totally dependent on having trucks, trains, and planes deliver everything we need to the neighborhood store. We are almost completely disconnected from our food sources and energy sources. We merely consume.
When considering how well my family would fare if everything weren’t conveniently available at the local grocery or department store, I concluded we would do quite poorly. We have set up our lives so that we are totally dependent, raising none of our own food, having no source of water or heat outside of what is available to us from the local grocer and Power Company.
In America we are facing the fast rising cost of fuel. It affects everything from the cost of a trip to town to the price of a hotdog bun. We have needed to change our habits for a very long time, but we have refused to do so. I wonder how long it will take before we start to imagine a new way to sustain ourselves in the world?
These are questions that I am starting to ask myself. I think they are questions that we should all consider. How can we live in this world in a way that moves beyond mere consumerism and that is more connected to the earth and our food source?
I have been reading Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”. It is an interesting story of his adventures for two years in a small cabin of his own building living as simply as possible. All the while he writes his philosophy of how he sees things. His conclusion is that we could all live much more simply and happily than we do.
I’ll admit that I have to agree with what he says. Very often our things don’t add one bit of pleasure to our lives. Rather they can keep us enslaved caring for and paying for them. We have gotten into the bad habit of owning way too many things. It is the modern way. And it seems to be the post-modern way, also. It makes me wonder if perhaps it is time to think of a new way.
Don’t get me wrong; I like stuff just as much as the next person. But in looking at the amount of stuff we have all accumulated and the amount of the stuff that is just clutter, it makes one wonder what life could be like with a lot less. In light of the current cost of energy and the fact that we are rapidly depleting our energy resources it makes one think of when times were simpler and we didn’t have so much and didn’t travel about constantly.
The other reality that has struck me as I have considered what we might be forced to collectively consider is what will we do without the energy sources that we currently have? We are totally dependent on having trucks, trains, and planes deliver everything we need to the neighborhood store. We are almost completely disconnected from our food sources and energy sources. We merely consume.
When considering how well my family would fare if everything weren’t conveniently available at the local grocery or department store, I concluded we would do quite poorly. We have set up our lives so that we are totally dependent, raising none of our own food, having no source of water or heat outside of what is available to us from the local grocer and Power Company.
In America we are facing the fast rising cost of fuel. It affects everything from the cost of a trip to town to the price of a hotdog bun. We have needed to change our habits for a very long time, but we have refused to do so. I wonder how long it will take before we start to imagine a new way to sustain ourselves in the world?
These are questions that I am starting to ask myself. I think they are questions that we should all consider. How can we live in this world in a way that moves beyond mere consumerism and that is more connected to the earth and our food source?
Comments