In order to have an experience with nature, you have to cut yourself off from all communication with society and the public. You have to be completely alone with no way of getting in touch with anyone and more importantly, with no one having a way to get ahold of you. No cell phone, no ipod, no computer, no people. All there can be is you and your thoughts and nature around you. You have to completely surrender yourself to the Earth and trust that it will not hurt you and you have to trust that it can support you. You also have to give the nature enough time to have an effect on you. At least around 30 minutes is about enough time to have an experience. This experience really allows you to connect yourself with nature, but in order to gain something from the experience you have to open to gaining something from this nature experience. You have to trust that nature can support you in the barest sense. We have to know that even if we lose everything, our familes, friends, homes, cars, pets, everything even if we lost everything, we would still have nature it would be there as a home for you if you needed one. It is the only thing that can support you when everythign else has failed you. This experience of being alone with nature really made me realize that. I saw that the even when the sand and the ocean were all i had, i wasn't panicked. I could trust nature if i ever needed to. Nature is so pure, and so serene that it can calm you down from any state of mind the rest of hte world has put you in. People and society and expectations and stress can put you in bad moods, and they can ruin your state of mind, but nature is the one thing that can always return your sanity and your mind back to you. No matter how pressure your mind gets put on it, a time in nature is the world's psychiatrist. A peaceful time with nature can cure anything that the world can throw at you, it restores your mind and revives your heart. Being alone with the ocean with no way of anyone contacting me and interrupting my peace was really liberating, it makes you feel in control of your own mind again and it frees your thoughts from the boundaries that society has put them in.
"He who knows the most, he who knows what sweetss and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and loyal man."
"These enchantments are medicinal; they sober and heal us."
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Post 3
Living as an Emersonian friend meant that we had to be honest with our friends. We weren't allowed to use common conversation as enough to satisfy our friendships for the day. We weren't supposed to use compliments or gossip or common conversation with our friends, instead we had to use honesty, and only honesty. We were supposed to be sincere with our friends no matter what, and this was hard! When i saw my friends during the day, I wasn't even allowed to wave or say hi because that would be considered common conversation. I'm sure people thought i was ignoring them because i would make eye contact with them, and they would wave, and i would have to keep walking. Also, we weren't really supposed to tell our friends stories. A day as an Emersonian friend makes you realize how much our friendships rely on stories, and conversations, and gossip, and compliments. It depends on it so much to the point where it all almost seems fake. When all day, i wasn't allowed to give a friend a compliment or tell them something to make them feel better, it felt awkward not being able to have a normal conversation with friends, even if they were having a bad day and you couldn't comfort them. We had to use complete honesty. That was hard! When your friends need comforting and you can't give it to them and all you can give to them is sincerity, it makes you feel like a bad friend. It makes it seem like you don't care about them. Not to mention, honesty is not always acceptable in a situation. Often, to protect people we don't tell truth. Sometimes we only tell them pieces of hte truth to try to protect them from painful honesty that would hurt them. Thankfully, on my Emersonian day i didn't have to give anyone painful truth, but it was hard always being honest with people. Telling them their hair looked bad, or telling them you got a bad grade on a paper. There are some things that you don't feel you need your friends to know, but that is what Emerson says we need to stop. He says we need to be completely open with our friends, we need to almost become one person and they have to be the one person who we trust completely and allow to know everything about ourselves. Living as an Emersonian friend for a day was hard. It really made you realize how much we depend on common conversation, and how much we think that fake smiles and gossip can be a definition for a friendship. It makes you realize that it's supposed to be something deeper than that. It would be interesting if we all coould live as Emersonian friends, there would endless trust and endless honesty however, society is not ready to allow us to live like that, at least for not all of us to live like that. A passage that I took my inspiration from for this day states "I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that i may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him wih the simplicity and wholeness with which a chemical atom meets another." -Emerson
Monday, November 24, 2008
Post 2
Gifts
Emerson says that the way we give and receive gifts is selfish and wrong. He says that we need to give gifts without the expectation of getting one in return nor should we expect a 'thank you', and also when we give gifts it should not be for the sole reason of having the superior position, blackmail in a sense. When receiving a gift, any emotion that is shown is bad. If we show sadness towards a gift or if we show gladness towards a gift, both are disrespectful and mean towards the giver. When we show emotion towards a gift, it means that we care more about the gift itself, rather than the person who gave you the gift. it means that we care more about possessions than we do about relationships. the way that we receive and give gifts proves to us that we are more concerned with material wealth than we are with making connections with people and caring for others. Emerson tells us that our gifts should be little pieces of ourselves given to other people. He says that material gifts are not nearly as meaningful to other people as gifts that are small pieces of our souls given to another person. He tells us "But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's." If you began to give gifts like this, your life would change in the idea that every time you were expected to give someone a gift, and simply gave them something meaningless in wealth to them, it would not be accepted. When i was little, I really wanted to give my family christmas presents, but clearly i had no money. So I gave my dad, mom, and sister each a small empty box and I told them it was a box of love. My mom still has that box. One time my little cousin in second grade had an assignment to write about her hero, and she wrote about me. Her mom then sent me the letter and it is one of hte best gifts i've ever recieved. She said i wasn't supposed to ever read it, but I am glad my aunt told me about it.
Emerson says that the way we give and receive gifts is selfish and wrong. He says that we need to give gifts without the expectation of getting one in return nor should we expect a 'thank you', and also when we give gifts it should not be for the sole reason of having the superior position, blackmail in a sense. When receiving a gift, any emotion that is shown is bad. If we show sadness towards a gift or if we show gladness towards a gift, both are disrespectful and mean towards the giver. When we show emotion towards a gift, it means that we care more about the gift itself, rather than the person who gave you the gift. it means that we care more about possessions than we do about relationships. the way that we receive and give gifts proves to us that we are more concerned with material wealth than we are with making connections with people and caring for others. Emerson tells us that our gifts should be little pieces of ourselves given to other people. He says that material gifts are not nearly as meaningful to other people as gifts that are small pieces of our souls given to another person. He tells us "But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's." If you began to give gifts like this, your life would change in the idea that every time you were expected to give someone a gift, and simply gave them something meaningless in wealth to them, it would not be accepted. When i was little, I really wanted to give my family christmas presents, but clearly i had no money. So I gave my dad, mom, and sister each a small empty box and I told them it was a box of love. My mom still has that box. One time my little cousin in second grade had an assignment to write about her hero, and she wrote about me. Her mom then sent me the letter and it is one of hte best gifts i've ever recieved. She said i wasn't supposed to ever read it, but I am glad my aunt told me about it.
Post 1
Self-Reliance
"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
This statement means that in our lives, we are given one sacred object, and that is our mind. Our minds are unique to every person and special to each one of us. It is sacred in the idea that i can not be replaced or changed by anything else or anyone else. Nothing should be more important to us thatn the protection of our minds and the upholding and nourishing of them. our mind must grow and must stay strong and keep unchanged by outside forces. In other words, it must keep its integrity.
The word sacred often makes us think of something religious or somthing handed down to us by God, but here it has a different meaning. Here, the word sacred means reverently dedicated to some person, purpose, or object. This means that our mind and our souls are specifically given to us. It is like a fingerprint, we can be found and defined by our mind and by understanding our mind, people can find us.
This statement also tells us that the sacredness of our mind our mind itself is irreplaceable and can not be changed. Because of this we need to embrace our mind and what it brigns us and accept it for what it is. Insead of trying to change it in order to be accepted by other people, we have to realize that they can't be chagned by other people, they can only be changed by us. It is imperative that we accept our minds and let them be what they are. That is the point of them being sacred. Our minds and our souls are are special things that must be protected at all times in order to keep their sacredness intact. In order to keep this up we have to speak our minds and keep them strong to not let others destroy them by flooding our minds with other thoughts that are not ours but soon begin to seem like they are ours because other people force us to accept them. We have to respect our minds and protect them with all our heart. We have to trust our minds and believe that our own thoughts are sacred enough to get us through anything.
All this may seem a little harsh, but the point is that people should not be able to change our minds for us. This doesn't mean that we can't change our minds for ourselves, it just means that we can't let other people or any other outside force change our minds for us.
Speak your mind and never doubt.
"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
This statement means that in our lives, we are given one sacred object, and that is our mind. Our minds are unique to every person and special to each one of us. It is sacred in the idea that i can not be replaced or changed by anything else or anyone else. Nothing should be more important to us thatn the protection of our minds and the upholding and nourishing of them. our mind must grow and must stay strong and keep unchanged by outside forces. In other words, it must keep its integrity.
The word sacred often makes us think of something religious or somthing handed down to us by God, but here it has a different meaning. Here, the word sacred means reverently dedicated to some person, purpose, or object. This means that our mind and our souls are specifically given to us. It is like a fingerprint, we can be found and defined by our mind and by understanding our mind, people can find us.
This statement also tells us that the sacredness of our mind our mind itself is irreplaceable and can not be changed. Because of this we need to embrace our mind and what it brigns us and accept it for what it is. Insead of trying to change it in order to be accepted by other people, we have to realize that they can't be chagned by other people, they can only be changed by us. It is imperative that we accept our minds and let them be what they are. That is the point of them being sacred. Our minds and our souls are are special things that must be protected at all times in order to keep their sacredness intact. In order to keep this up we have to speak our minds and keep them strong to not let others destroy them by flooding our minds with other thoughts that are not ours but soon begin to seem like they are ours because other people force us to accept them. We have to respect our minds and protect them with all our heart. We have to trust our minds and believe that our own thoughts are sacred enough to get us through anything.
All this may seem a little harsh, but the point is that people should not be able to change our minds for us. This doesn't mean that we can't change our minds for ourselves, it just means that we can't let other people or any other outside force change our minds for us.
Speak your mind and never doubt.
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