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October 05, 2005
Walden Ch 13 and Ch 18
This story not only says that we need to simplify our lives, but the author also shows us how to live this type of life. When he is building his chimney it states, "My bricks, being second-hand ones, required to be cleaned with a trowel, so that I learned more than usual of the qualities of bricks and trowels (par 5)." He is not wasting prefectly good bricks that he already has. Although it is going to take him some work to clean the bricks he is not being lazy and going to his local distributor and flashing money in front of them. It also states, "I filled the spaces between the bricks about the fireplace with stones from the pond shore, and also made my mortar with the white sand from the same place (par 5)." He not only is reusing his bricks, but he is also uses the resources around him to complete his task. I think we can all learn a very valuable lesson from his conservation.
I also was wondering throughout this story how much contact he had with people. I often thought how lonley I would be. So it was interesting to me that he almost becomes friends with the fire. In paragraph 17 he says, "It was I and the Fire that lived there." Also later after he gets rid of his fire he says, "The stove not only took up room and scented the house, but it soncealed the fire, and I felt as if I has lost a companion. You can always see a face in the fire (par 19)." This is why people sit and stare at a fire. It draws us in, we can't look away, we try to discover what is inside the glowing flames. This also reminds me of the movie, Cast Away, when Tom Hanks becomes friends with Wilson his volleyball. The search for human contact is so great that we have to imagine something as human.
Posted by MichelleKoss at October 5, 2005 02:18 PM
Comments
i like your entry a lot. i kind of thought the same sort of things as well. i admired Thoreau for the fact that he recycled bricks and took the time to chip the old mortar off. also, i really like that he used the resources around him. he did not have much money, and the ways in which he lived were very economical. i think that his chimney-building extravanganza chapter showed this quite efficiently.
also, thanks for all the comments you leave on my blogs, i really appreciate them! :)
Posted by: LaurenEtling at October 5, 2005 09:34 PM
great entry and you really help me also when u comment on my blogs, i look forward to it. anyway, i feel no matter how isolated we want to be we all want human contact. nurses have said that in hospitals just from human touch, premature babies start to get healthier and its so powerful. i think it was vital for Thoreau to get away to experience this and appreciate others and the simple pleasures of bubbles and crickets.
Posted by: Erin at October 6, 2005 10:50 PM
THANKS GUYS!
Could you imagine if we all conserved as much as he did? America really needs to listen to these types of thinking and become wayyyyyyyyy less materialistic.
Yes it is also interesting how it has been proven that if you touch and hug children that they developed healthier. We need the human touch as children to develop normal in this world.
Posted by: michelle koss at October 9, 2005 01:13 PM