I was thinking about the coming upheaval in our lifestyles as we run out of oil and begin to adapt to “new normal.” I was also thinking about the wise observation that one of the biggest challenges facing us in this time of profound change, will be our ability handle the changes psychologically.

And so this passage from Thoreau’s experience living 2 years in the woods at Walden Pond came to mind. It offers the opportunity for deep reflection and spiritual growth by living “Spartan-like” and thereby finding the mean and sublime aspects of life. Ours will not be the voluntary simplicity of Thoreau, but rather a simplicity forced upon us, yet it can offer the same benefits of experiencing the “essential facts of life” and living deep, without the cheap glitter and false gods of consumerism and greed.

I believe that most people yearn for deeper meaning, especially as we/they are faced with mortality. As we work to promote Europeanization, Villagification, and the move away from consumer-centric lifestyles, I suggest that we consider the “frame” put forth in this passage from H.D.T. promoting the opportunity to finally understand the very essence of what it means to live and be alive.

“I went to the woods 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. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”
Henry David Thoreau - Walden, 1854