Excerpt from Henry D. Thoreau, Walden
“It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. . . . We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done.”
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, Civil Disobedience, And Other Writings, Authoritative Texts, Journal, Reviews And Posthumous Assessments, Criticism. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co Inc, 2008. Print. Pg. 64,65
Thoreau would do away with the breakfast in bed, or the coffee on the go, in search of a more important wake-up call: a spiritual awakening. A man may be going through life thinking he is wide awake while his soul still slumbers. Many try to lead a fulfilling life, while missing out on some of the more important experiences that wait to be discovered. How can we become awoken to ability to elevate our lives? What can we do to become more connected, to one another, to the earth and to the world we live in.
It is the infinite expectation of the dawn, a new beginning for oneself, according to Thoreau. He sees each person as a potential sculptor or artist. And while it is a thing of beauty to paint a picture or carve a statue, I think Thoreau is talking about carving your own destiny, and painting the picture of your own moral outlook. Thoreau thinks that because our soul affects our day to day lives, it is of much more importance for one to craft on the morality of the soul, rather than work on painting a picture. In the long run, it is much more important to spend time on the little things, the small interactions that are food for your soul, small moments when one recognizes the existence of the soul. The soul is very important to Thoreau, and when crafted can make changes not only on the large things in life but “even in the details”. (Thoreau)
Thoreau says that every man is “tasked” to some sort of moral obligation for a self-awakening, for every man to elevate his life, but how? Thoreau points toward two ways to get there, first making a “conscience endeavor”, or making the effort to thoughtful, deliberate mental effort in order to wake oneself up. Thoreau also alludes to “paltry information” that may be blinding us from seeing the truth. Thoreau went to Walden Pond to get away from society, and in his words “because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” (Thoreau) In Walden, Thoreau might be saying we need some sort of filter, somehow cleaning the “paltry information” from our heads. His head was cleared for a two year period in the woods, and that to be expected isn’t possible for most of us right now, so what kind of filtering can we do to rid ourselves from some of this paltry information, and what do you think it will do for your own soul?
I’ve always loved this specific passage in Walden and the way you write about it is very lyrical; I like the idea of Thoreau resisting the idea of breakfast in bed, or coffee on the go (and who knows what he’d think of drive-throughs). You also quote one of the most famous lines in the book– Thoreau’s idea of living deliberately. But what do you think it means to “front” a “fact”? How does Thoreau propose one should go about doing this? One place to start looking for an answer to these two questions is the final two paragraphs of the chapter “Where I Live, And What I Lived For” where Thoreau playfully imagines what it would be like to have a “Realometer” (a device for distinguishing facts from non-facts). Also, might the notion of “fronting” a fact have an environmental component in that there is a spatial connotation to the phrase; how does one get to the “front” of a fact (how does one “front” nature)?
I like how you brought attention to the importance of the soul to Thoreau. I find it interesting that while he believed in a soul, he was still very concerned with living in the present. I wonder if he believed the soul to be immortal or as more of a spirit? This also reminded me of the passages from the chapter Spring in which he talks about new beginnings. Personally, I think the best way to clear my own head is to go out into nature, where there are minimal to no people and simply enjoy the solitude as I have a chance to think while devoid of distractions.
I remember reading this passage and being stuck by the phrase, “To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” I agree with you that Thoreau is speaking about the soul being the most important part of our lives and its nourishment is more important than material things. This moral obligation of self-awakening you mention, I cant help but wonder what kind of self-awakening Thoreau would find ‘acceptable’? Can it be daily meditation to center oneself or does it have to be an extended period of time? Is there that “Ah-ha!” moment where your life suddenly becomes clear? Who is to say you are self-awoken?