As counter point, antithesis, in
diabolical opposition to all the pesky
descendental down & dirty devilish
details we have with us always--you
know: the taking-care-of-business
house-keeping & oikos logical
sustainability concerns,
consider
Transcendentalism (II)
Protestant to the core, they turn their
protest against what is customarily
called the Protestant [ Puritan ] ethic:
they refuse to labor in a proper calling,
conscientiously cultivate the arts of
leisure [ schola ] and strive to avoid
making money.
The greater part of what men call
good I believe in my soul to be bad,
and if I repent anything, it is very
likely to be my good behavior.
The Transcendentalists were in fact
children of an atmosphere, in which
they breathed rather than acquired
ideas and were not at all proponents
of any systematic logic.
And then there 's Thoreau:
“the only man of leisure [ schola ]
in his town; and his independence
made all others look like slaves.”
I first read Walden when I had to
“teach” it to high school juniors
in
called academically talented.
Tuition, for instance, is an important
part of the term bill, while for the
far more important education he
gets by associating with the most
cultivated of his contemporaries no
charge is made.
Because I couldn’t instruct them
(not having read the book),
I had to educe them.
What?
What the?
What the hell?
Research…like that.
Genuine questions.
Stupid. Stunned.
We edified our selves.
Imagine a young man, early 20's,
graduate of Harvard and no sense
of what to do now, tried teaching,
considered his father’s pencil company,
baby sat Emerson's kids and ended
up squatting on Ralph’s land
You must have a genius for charity
as well as anything else. As for
Doing Good, that is one of the
professions which are full. Moreover
I have tried it fairly, and strange as it
may seem, am satisfied that it does
not agree with my constitution.
He proceeded to make a virtue
out of hanging out, doing nothing
in the usual sense: wasting time
and criticizing his neighbors
for their busy business.
Most of the luxuries and many of
the so-called comforts of life, are
not only not indispensable but
positive hindrances to the elevation
of mankind.
He set the woods on fire once by
mistake, and sat down to watch
it burn, figuring nothing he could
do to repair the damage would
repair the damage done..
He claimed he wouldn’t walk across
the street to save the world, which I
interpret as proper humility. The first
words the devil ever said to God (it is
rumored): “here, let me organize that
for you.”
There is no odor quite so bad as
that which arises from goodness
tainted. It is human, it is divine,
carrion.
He claimed, if you only gave a
bit of your time to good works,
people would call you
philanthropist—but if you
dedicate your whole life,
you’re considered nuts.
The cost of a thing is the amount
of what I will call life which is
required to be exchanged for it,
immediately or in the long run.
Look: transcendental means thinking
out of the box while in it, is all: out
of the bubble, cave, the culture,
convention and closet for crying
out loud. While still IN IT.
Out of it and In it at the
same more & less
time.
It’s the liberal art: a practice and
life-long x-treme sport.. That’s
what I call it.
Here’s how Thoreau sums it up
at the end of “Civil Disobedience”:
an ARCHTYPAL anarchist treatise
on the virtue of listening to higher laws
They who know of no purer sources
of truth, who have traced up its stream
no higher, stand, and wisely stand,
by the Bible and the Constitution, and
drink at it there with reverence and
humility; but they who behold where
it comes trickling into this lake or
that pool, gird up their loins once
more, and continue their pilgrimage
toward its fountainhead..
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