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In Walt Whitman’s poem, “I Hear America Singing”, he wrote of each person and their position in society. He had each character doing one specific job for their community, following the American Dream. But Thoreau would be very much against this. Thoreau even said, he may do something, but that may not make him that person. If he does some masonry that doesn’t make his a mason. Thoreau would want people to be self-reliant and follow their own paths instead of picking one job and becoming dependent on the rest of society to help him with all other jobs that need to be done.

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In Ethan and Hila’s 43rd podcast they bring in Vsauce, or Michael Stevens, to talk. In their conversation Michael speaks of an event when he traveled to Peru to take a psychedelic drug, ayahuasca. The native inhabitants take the drug to connect to the world and nature. Like how Thoreau enveloped himself in nature by building a cabin to live in, Michael took the ayahuasca to have a taste of nature and experience what the natives do in order to connect spiritually to themselves and others. While speaking of his experience Michael says, “It’s like describing colors to someone who has never seen. It… it’s a completely different state of mind”. Ethan replies to this statement by saying, “I never really let go...and you’re always resisting the urge to just kind of float off.” This is related to transcendentalism by showing their experience of transcending, but only doing so while under the drug. Thoreau had transcended, yet he had done so without the use of the drug because he had spent time with nature.

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SONG 3 - Anything but the Truth by Jack Johnson

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SONG 3 - Anything but the Truth by Jack Johnson

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In Jack Johnson’s song Anything but the Truth, he sings about different problems, including global warming when he says, “If they tell me that the bees

Don't make honey anymore”. He is singing to his family about the problems of the Earth, but he can only tell the truth. Johnson wants to keep the truth from his children, yet he will not lie to them or it is the fact that Johnson is uncertain. The truth could be the uncertainty of the world that the children must find out on their own. Instead of taking the information from scientists and conformists, the children should explore to find the truth, their own truth. When Thoreau goes huckleberrying he has Edward look for the huckleberries, and pick them. Johnson’s kids must do the same. They must look for the knowledge on all these subjects and find the truth.

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Henry David Thoreau: a man of solitude seeking connection.

Thoreau wrote about his living in his time, but life now is different. We would have to be self-reliant with a job in order to pay for a place to live and get things to  build a house and eat. By needing a job we inherently need education to get the job, but in today’s world you must graduate high school or college to get an average job. This would mean that we need to study using textbooks and lectures in order to pass high school and college. This would already eliminate self-knowledge and nonconformity. On the other hand, we can still learn greatly from Thoreau. We can learn to try to be more self reliant, live simple lives, get involved in helping others, stand up for our beliefs, connect with nature and our inner God, and much more! Thoreau, Emerson and the other transcendentalists have left a legacy for everyone to take after and hopefully learn from.

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Henry David Thoreau: a man of solitude seeking connection: EBSCOhost

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Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

This quote by Emerson shows his view on self-reliance and nonconformity. Emerson believed that we should should find a way to live that fits us best. Instead of following society we should go our own way, carving a new trail for others to go down and explore. Emerson left his trail of transcendentalism for others to explore and eventually make their our trail. People learned from Emerson and found what makes them happy and connects them to nature.

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Thoreau’s quote is about someone veering off of what society of doing. Society would be the entire group marching together. But one person is different, like Thoreau, taking another path in life. Instead of shunning that person or excluding them, Thoreau says that we should let them continue, let them follow their plan, whatever their plan is for life. This is what happened to Thoreau when he was a transcendentalist. He was shunned in the community and seen as different, but felt that he should still be accepted.

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“Rather than love, that money, than fame, give me truth which is the true wealth” - Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau said that instead of the three things society wants most, he wants truth. He wants the answers to his questions and he wants to explore things for himself. Thoreau came not to love after Ellen Sewell rejected him for being an outcast and her father not liking him. After that Thoreau had no desire for love or affection, as if he had found a love in nature and no longer needed someone. Thoreau also lived a simple life, so he did not care for money or fame. This is what differed him from society since most people wanted and still want those three things most in life which is what shows Thoreau’s opinion on nonconformity.

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In Gavin DeGraw’s song he sings of his desire to be himself. Gavin says how he doesn’t want to be who other people want him to be. He wants to be himself and not conform to society. He sings that he is “surrounded by liars” and that everywhere he turns he sees impostors, people trying to be who they are not. Thoreau and Emerson believed in being oneself and not conforming to society. Thoreau stood out in society by being himself and not being who everyone wants, which is the same situation DeGraw sings about.

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Michelangelo painted an image of God creating Adam, but the image has not been proven to mean anything in particular. There are many theories on what the image is actually of. One of those theories is that God is apart of our minds and how we think. Michelangelo could have painted the image to show that God is apart of our minds and how we think. This is like the Oversoul value in transcendentalism that Thoreau and Emerson both believed in. Emerson believed that God is real, but a God that is found within all of us that we do not need a church to see. In the painting Adam is touching God, who is sitting in a brain shaped area. This brain area is Adam’s brain, and God is within his thoughts and apart of Adam. Adam has discovered that God is within and not some external source, and he is reaching within to find to connect to him.

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Suzanne Marie Leclair painted of a man whose wife left him and ever since his life has started to fall apart. He goes through his life in sadness on the inside, but everyone sees a happy, handsome man. The man has not looked into who he is and makes him him. He believes that his wife and life events have defined him, yet it is the exact opposite. Our lives are defined by how we react to things that happen in our lives. Like Emerson said, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but rising up every time we fail”. The man must learn who he is. Not through books, other people, or his experiences, but through himself, looking into his soul, and rising up.

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In the movie Shrek, Shrek lives in a swamp with his little house and outdoor restroom. Shrek only has what he needs to survive and stay safe, yet he has no more. Shrek doesn’t have materialistic goods like that of the people in the village and Lord Farquaad. Shrek lives a life of simplicity like Thoreau did in his Cabin by the pond. Thoreau’s cabin had the essentials for him to live safely. Thoreau would be proud of Shrek and his lifestyle of simplicity.

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The image I chose is a picture I took at Lake Cheerful. The image is of a lonely kayaker in the middle of a lake as a storm approaches. The line of shade and darkness on the left is the falling rain making its way toward the kayaker. Yet the image appears to be serene. With the calmness of the water, the sunsetting behind the trees, and the intentions of catching fish,  the kayaker is ignorant to the impending problem and may believe all is good. They seem to symbolize humanity in that we face one direction, and go with a single goal in mind. We live to be successful. Humanity is unmindful about the consequences of these actions and where they will really lead us. Instead we should take our own path and find what makes us happy in nature, not materialistic goods.

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Nature was a major part of the transcendentalists and their lifestyles. Thoreau lived for simplicity and self-reliance, while other transcendentalists learned more towards other aspects of transcendentalism. These transcendentalists have left much behind for us to learn from them, including homes and their writings. With Thoreau being so involved in nature he built a cabin for $28 which can be visited to this day. Thoreau also learned multiple languages to connect to other people and understand other cultures which is something not often mentioned, considering how he would have learned those languages.

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The Documentary Minimalism is a story about trying to live happily. The character goes searching for a true source of happiness. He eventually comes along the idea that minimalism, living with few materialistic goods, is a common factor between the happiest. If Thoreau lived today he would be called a minimalist because of his views on simplicity. Thoreau believed in living simply with only the essentials, which is what the documentary is about.

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Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things | Netflix

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People dedicated to rejecting the American ideal that things bring happiness are interviewed in this documentary showing the virtues of less is more. Watch trailers & learn more.

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This photo is of me standing next to a pond with a restrictive sign. Like Thoreau I have decided to protest against society and not follow the unreasonable rules. This sign was restricting me what being one with nature and getting closer to transcending. I believe that we should be allowed to love nature and bask in its ultimate glory. Thoreau also protested for his beliefs by not paying his taxes and going to jail in order to prove a point.

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“The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.” These are some of the last lines in Thoreau’s book Walden. He says how “light”, or knowledge and ideas, that put out our eyes, making us unable to see or blinding us, is no longer light, but it is darkness. Like we talked about in class while reading the Springboard book, Thoreau was opposed to things that continue to simplify our lives to which we forget that knowledge. There is no point in advancing our technology without expanding our knowledge as well.But that will never be found if we are not looking. We must be “awake” and ready to live our lives day by day, getting brighter, to have new beginnings.

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Bob Marley sings about people needed to stand up for themselves and fight for their equal rights, like Thoreau believed in. In this part he speaks of the uncertainty of Christianity and the idea how we are blinded by the desires of our afterlives. He sings that we should look for our lives on earth instead of looking towards the heavens to “see the light”. Instead of living your life for the afterlife, we should live for the present and what we can do now. In The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail Henry is seen working on Sunday. He explains how one should not waste the day and should instead spend the holy day in nature, a part of God.