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Description:

Self-discovery doesn't just happen in nature, so if dirt and bugs make your skin crawl, cop a squat and hit play.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Walden.....

00:18

let's do this nature is

00:20

wonderful the sunshine the animals clouds in the sky the mosquitoes the [Butterfly appears on a cloud]

00:27

pollen the sudden rainstorm that ruins everything

00:30

okay nature's not for everyone but like it or not humans are connected to nature

00:35

we might hide from it in our air-conditioned condos and cars but it's

00:39

still out there there are a lot of lessons that can be learned from

00:43

spending time in and observing the natural world around us and as one man [Woman looking at animals with binoculars]

00:48

discovered being tight with nature totally has its benefits Henry David

00:53

Thoreau was born lived and died in and around Concord Massachusetts with a

00:58

thirst for knowledge and a hot intellectual curiosity he pursued study

01:02

in philosophy politics and religion at Harvard University not stoked about the [Harvard University appears]

01:08

usual job fields that most people pursued after graduation business

01:12

religion or law, Thoreau decided to teach finding that public school teaching

01:17

clashed with his personal beliefs meaning that he wouldn't dole out

01:20

corporal punishment to bad students Thoreau and his bro opened their own [Thoreau outside concord academy school]

01:24

school there the brothers tried out new methods with the students like taking

01:28

them on nature walks and writing poetry about their experiences

01:31

Thoreau became friendly ahem with an older gentleman named Ralph Waldo

01:36

Emerson who encouraged Thoreau to write and seek publication in a local journal

01:40

Emerson was a leader in a movement called transcendentalism that Thoreau found

01:45

thoroughly interesting this philosophy is tricky to define but essentially

01:49

transcendentalist believed in individualism idealism and a common

01:54

humanity among people despite how different and unique everyone is

01:57

believers in this philosophy felt that humans have the ability to transcend the [Woman meditating on the grass]

02:02

material things of the world in order to find themselves through spirituality and

02:07

you know personal examination come on people get your minds out of the gutter [Butterfly flying by]

02:11

Emerson also let Thoreau live in his cabin for a while this camping

02:16

experiment led to Thoreau's most famous work Walden published in 1854, Walden

02:22

describes Thoreau's experience living alone in nature with nothing but

02:25

squirrels on his own thoughts to keep him company he wanted to better [Thoreau sitting on a bench with squirrels]

02:29

understand what in the world humans were really about and he decided that the

02:33

only real way to do this was to cut himself off from society in order to

02:37

simplify, simplify this was kind of like Thoreau's mantra can't really knock the

02:42

idea unless of course you simply can't simplify because you've got 16 different

02:47

handheld electronic devices a shoe collection that would rival kim [Man sitting with a huge shoe collection]

02:51

kardashian and more posters than the national poster museum does... Thoreau

02:56

wasn't interested in material possession instead living with basically nothing

03:00

and writing all about how the minimalist lifestyle affected him so was he a nut

03:05

job or simply genius before we dismiss Thoreau as a weirdo crackpot with

03:10

outdated notions about how to live life let's check out a chapter from Walden [Walden book appears beside flying butterfly]

03:14

this should give you a smidge of understanding into who this guy was and

03:18

why on earth he'd choose to live in solitude instead of hitting up a spot

03:22

downtown with a couple of choice roomies or a good-looking partner in crime hit

03:26

pause and read the chapter called where I lived and what I lived for..... welcome back

03:32

before we take apart the chapter you just read here's a full rundown of the

03:37

book as I mentioned before, Walden is all about living a simple life in nature [Man playing saxophone]

03:42

and all that jazz the book takes place over the two years that Thoreau lived in

03:46

a cabin he built himself on Emerson's property at Walden Pond this book is

03:51

mostly about the literal observations that Thoreau made and how he tied his

03:55

thoughts about history philosophy and humanity at large to what he sees in the

03:59

natural world Thoreau made a few trips into town and occasionally entertained [Thoreau trips over in the street]

04:03

people at his cabin but mostly he chilled by himself just thinkin

04:07

observing and writing this may sound totally boring or like an old school

04:12

version of survivor but here's the deal Thoreau was living life exactly the way

04:17

he wanted to how many people can honestly say

04:20

that about their own lives think about it if you could live any way you want it [Man surfboarding in the ocean]

04:24

what would you do if there were no parents forcing you to do chores no

04:28

school to fill your days no siblings demanding you play with them or help

04:33

with their homework what would you do how would you choose to live your idea [Boy asking sister for help with homework and boy disappears]

04:37

of a perfect life might be way different than the one Thoreau came up with but this

04:40

important thing was that he was doing it his way that's a huge deal and because [Thoreau walking his way]

04:46

he chose to live in the way that he did he freed up his mind from normal

04:50

everyday stressors and came up with some pretty awesome observations about life

04:54

in where I lived and what I lived for we get Thoreau's own take on the purpose

04:59

behind his experiment in the preceding chapter that we didn't read he says

05:03

the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation that doesn't sound like a [Quote from Thoreau's book appears]

05:08

good thing Thoreau thought that most people go through life carrying out

05:12

what's expected of them but seeking something more they feel trapped in some

05:16

way but not knowing how to talk about this feeling they keep quiet and remain

05:21

desperate which sounds miserable but that's the point Thoreau was making he

05:25

thought that most people were pretty miserable [Man takes drink while sitting in a chair]

05:27

and since it was certainly not most people he attempted to live in a

05:31

different way reflecting on the experience as he goes

05:34

to see what the result will be he also figured out that most of the luxuries

05:39

and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable but

05:44

positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind this means that people are

05:49

taught to seek happiness in things or possessions but these only hold us back [Thoreau walking through a forest]

05:53

from becoming higher-level thinkers if someone told you that your cell phone

05:57

was holding you back from being an elevated being you might laugh and then

06:01

text your BFF about what they just said But Thoreau had a point if we break out of

06:05

our normal routines and give up using our beloved possessions 24/7 we're

06:10

forced to look at life in different ways in this same vein of thinking Thoreau [Man driving a car]

06:14

noted the massive discrepancy between how rich people and poor people live and

06:18

enjoy life but how happens it that he who is said

06:22

to enjoy these things is so commonly a poor civilized man while the savage which

06:28

has them not is rich as a savage the cost of a thing is the amount of what

06:33

I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it immediately or in the

06:38

long run he's saying that rich people have and poor people don't and that

06:43

these attributes make the rich people poor in spirit and the poor people quite

06:48

rich the message is that wealthy people amass goods that only hold them back [Rich man attempting to reach enlightenment]

06:51

from being truly fulfilled in life and poor people don't have things cluttering

06:56

up their lives so they can live a more spiritually free existence just like he

07:00

attempted to do....

07:08

This is a transcendentalist way they transcend the

07:11

notion that we need material goods to make us happy [Butterfly flys by]

07:14

ie not very 80s Madonna it's all about slowing it down, taking in the world

07:19

around you with all of your senses and if we can do that then silly things like [Woman stood by tree smelling a flower]

07:23

deadlines and crushes who don't return phone calls become meaningless well more

07:28

or less what's wrong with that crush anyhow in

07:31

where I lived and what I lived for we become immersed in the great details

07:35

of Thoreau's observations of his home/setting of this book....

07:49

can't you just see those ghosts like mists sneaking off into the [Mists appear from Walden Pond]

07:53

thick woods because he slowed everything down to the base level of existence, Thoreau

07:57

was able to focus on his surroundings and make these detailed observations

08:02

pretty much every single day he wrote them in a way that even when we read

08:07

them some 150 plus years later we can totally envision the place where he was

08:12

living these observations are so descriptive

08:14

and full of imagery they could easily be written into poetry but what's the point

08:19

let's let Thoreau tell us for himself...

08:36

let's break this up Thoreau says he went to the woods which

08:40

we already know because he wanted to live deliberately that's a weird choice

08:45

of descriptor or maybe not deliberately means intentionally or on purpose so [Butterfly carrying a definition of deliberately on a board]

08:50

saying that by taking off on the nature hike of a lifetime is making a conscious

08:55

choice to live in a particular way okay I can get down with that

08:59

he then says he wanted to front only the essential facts of life and see if I

09:04

could not learn what it had to teach and not when I came to die discover that I

09:09

had not lived, Thoreau is pretty much explaining that he is ready to open

09:13

himself up to living with only the bare necessities without the Disney song and [Thoreau stood by a campfire and a bear appears behind a tree]

09:17

see what happens he's pretty sure that his experiment is going to yield the

09:21

results that he's been predicting all along that freeing himself from society

09:25

and all of its constraints will allow him to feel as if he's truly living life [Thoreau riding a rollercoaster]

09:30

sort of like how some people feel about going bungee jumping or skydiving. Thoreau

09:34

had a tight grip on ideas about what makes life precious and worth living and

09:38

what simply distracts and detracts from the life experience as he said I did not

09:42

wish to live what was not life living is so dear nor did I wish to practice [Sentence of chapter appears highlighted]

09:47

resignation unless it was quite necessary but he wasn't just hanging out

09:52

waiting for life to happen to him either....

10:08

....he's saying that he's not afraid to get his hands dirty literally [Thoreau shows his dirty hands]

10:12

this whole experience is about living life and Thoreau is excited about

10:15

diving in deep there are sixteen more chapters including a conclusion in

10:20

Walden and you should definitely put this one on your ever-growing to read [Conclusion appears and stamped must read]

10:24

list he talks about being alone, what he was reading and how he was affected by

10:28

the visitors who came along and saw how he was doing his thing in the conclusion

10:32

Thoreau writes...

10:40

success it might seem strange that Thoreau left the woods at all since he was [Thoreau standing in the woods by a cabin]

10:45

so dang happy there but naturally he had it perfect for doing so....

10:55

we wouldn't expect any less from this master of thought and self understanding

10:59

so what have we learned? even though nature might not be your

11:03

deal you can still appreciate what Thoreau said we're all mysterious beings

11:08

trapped in a web of routine to break out of the routine and really get to know [Man in handcuffs on TV]

11:12

ourselves in a spiritual way is what Thoreau and the spirit of transcendentalism

11:16

was all about we can all stand to know ourselves a bit better, even if

11:21

hiking flowers and bugs make our skin crawl

11:23

don't worry self discovery you can have an indoors too [Butterfly flying indoors]

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