In most of our cases that fix is technology. Instead of enjoying our regular 'old' cell phones, we need new smart phones...but then they aren't really good enough either once we get them. Our 'old' dell laptops? Yeah, well macs are sooo much better. I fall victim to this, just as much as the next person. I ordered my mac after graduating HS and here we are a year and a half later and i'm ready to order the newer and sleeker macbook air. How different is our addiction than a drug addict or a gaming addict? Not so different, is it?
If we were to live simply and not 'frittered away by detail' wouldn't we enjoy the little things in life a lot more? By eating one meal a day, consisting of very bland unseasoned natural foods, wouldn't we appreciate the nourishment it offers our bodies much more? It seems in this case we wouldn't be putting 'bad foods' into our bodies as much either, with the 'tastiness' gone.
We're allowing all of these incidentals to consume and destroy us. Many families are so detached meals that are eaten 'together' aren't really even together anymore. I know personally, that my family does not allow cell phones at the table during meals, but that many do. How connected are you at a meal if you parents are trying to talk to you and you are there texting away under the table, with the occasional 'uh huh' 'yeah' to add to the conversation? Your parents, grandparents, siblings and whomever else your having dinner with won't be around forever, yet you waste your precious time texting away, instead of spending time with real people. One could argue that texting is socializing with other real people, and it is, but we really need to get back to the basics on somethings, like communication.
So in response to this weeks prompt: No, i couldn't live in the wilderness like Thoreau did. I truely admire him for doing so and feel that it is primarily wrong that we live our lives today as we do. Why do we think that we are entitled to waste this life we are given? We are so worried about getting through life we forget to live purposefully. I know i now look at the activities that fill my day much differently than before i was introduced to Thoreau and Emerson as writers. When I'm old, i hope to say that i too have lived deliberately and with purpose.
So in response to this weeks prompt: No, i couldn't live in the wilderness like Thoreau did. I truely admire him for doing so and feel that it is primarily wrong that we live our lives today as we do. Why do we think that we are entitled to waste this life we are given? We are so worried about getting through life we forget to live purposefully. I know i now look at the activities that fill my day much differently than before i was introduced to Thoreau and Emerson as writers. When I'm old, i hope to say that i too have lived deliberately and with purpose.
I would like to note that tuning down the unhealthiness of one's meals does not mean that we need to compromise taste. I think I eat a fairly healthy diet and I am fully satisfied with the food I eat. However, I really agree with you. When one voluntarily eats healthy they start to appreciate the nourishment more, regardless of how tasty it is. I like that you can admit that you admire Thoreau for living the way he did but that you would not. I think many people who would not refuse to see the use in doing so.
ReplyDeleteI don't think by eating three meals a day you are frittering away your life. In fact I think that the three meals a day that families eat together are the only thing that are holding modern families together. I also feel I would never cut meals to make my life less complicated because quite frankly, it sounds ridiculous. I can see his point in that we spend so much time cooking, planning meals and eating that we are frittering away time, but I don't think it is time wasted. No one has told us that we can waste our live, however people should not be told how to live and it is their lives and if they want to waste them they should be able to. I think that people should live how they want to and not how others think they should live. We keep saying in blogs and discussions that technology is directing us to live in certain ways, however we agree with Thoreau that we should live deliberately. We don't even realize that through this passage he is directing us on how we should live our lives. What!, we are just going to listen and live deliberately because he says that is how we should live? I think we should live how we want to live and quit listening to all these people who try and tell us how to live better or tell us things we should change, things we should do. Live how you want, not how others think and want to live? If you like things in your life good. If you don't like things in your life change them. Simply as that. Then again why should you listen to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I admire him too for going that long without technology. I know I couldn't do that at all. We do spend most of our time thinking about our future and worrying about it than actually living in the present time and really enjoy life.
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