Diana, Ken, Jen, Pat, Angie, John, Wendy, Chris
Angie: Discussion Leader
2 Thoughts: Reaction
Ken: I was very excited. Return to nature, cleaning out the fridge, was there, could picture, rebellious, very appealing. Slightly dissappointing, I felt it was an immature/adolescent rebellion versus a mature rebellion.
Diana: Unsatisfied because it wasn’t thorough enough. Thoreau did not really descend fully into nature but went to town often, had food brought in, etc… No big deal. Not a tremendous sacrifice.
Pat: I think it would be more unusual to do it today.
Hippie lifestyle, 150 years removed.
Angie: Taking a stand against excess
He was also a proponent of hard work.
Angie: The mass of men lead lives of quite desperation. Is this true?
Ken: Stuff requires hard work and creates desperation, hampster in a cage, not getting anywhere.
Diana: I speak to the mass of men who are discontented, the complainers. Also, those who have accumulated their golded fetters.
Jesus: Had not place to lay his head.
Angie: What do you think about solitude: Is that necessary. What do you think?
Ken: Thoreau views nature as a relationship, and is not particularly excited about people, he is finding companionship in nature as opposed to people.
Ken: He seems to be at the grammar level of transcendentalism. He’s describing factual sensory interaction. He’s helping us to be aware of spiritual and physical things but not teaching us how to make the connections.
Angie: It’s like he is scolding us.
Chris: He is young, 27 and he says he sees no value in older people, I’ve never learned anything of value from an older person.
Wendy: He had no appreciation for the ax. i gave him the ax back in better condition than he gave it do me.
Pat: Americans are very independent and Thoreau typifies this.
John: I am six years old, I’m mad at my dad and I’m runing away, I’ll sho him.
Pat: There is value in living more simply.
Ken: Thoreau, derivative of Emerson, but became popular in the 20’s and 60’s.
His house: 10 by 15 feet
Lectures: Walden pond, troubled in 20th century, commercialism. Photographers.
John: If you worship the creation, you don’t value human life, you value nature, no balance. He is always standing on someone else’s shoulders but then takes credit for it all.
Angie: how do you reconcile Thoreau’s vision for simplicity with the rat race.
Cabin: He didn’t have a mat, let’s not go down that slippery slope.
“I learned this at least, that if one advances…..He will meet with a success…weakness, weakness. not put foundations under them.
Pat: Simplify: To spend time on other things other than your stuff. But Thoreau didn’t use the time wisely.
Angie: Why is this a great book?
As Christians, we have the inside track. Are we willing to take the steps, embrace the fullness of life and take risks that God might want us to embrace?
Angie: It would have been interesting for Thoreau to talk about how we can live simplicity in community.
Angie: I think it is valid to keep tabs on yourself. Are you pursuing things that don’t feed your soul?
Ken: How would you propose doing or pursuing that?
Angie: It’s hard because its saying no to the good to go after the best.
Jen: It requires space for reflection
Diana: We spend our leisure time with tv, magazines and consumerism. But the bible is the answer to everything especially putting things into perspective.
Why did he live: “I had several more lives to live, and couldn’t spare any more time for that one.”
Robert Lewis Stevenson: Thoreau was effeminate, womanly, sweet and girly.
Jesus: Consider the lilies of the field.
I want to turn everything on its head. I know less know than when I was born. Nature is calling me. I don’t trust where I have come from. There is much more to life. Go after it. Suck the marrow out of life.
Angie: How would a christian have written this book?
Ken: A christian would go through the creation to get to the creator.
Angie: Not just sucking the marrow out for yourself.
Jen: Interactions with people would be richer. and that people were of more value than the birch trip.
Diane: He would have had more humility toward other people.
John: Celebrate the creator, I was thinking he would have had a greater appreciation of nature.