a transcendental dog-man

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around. Nothing can be more useful to a man than the determination not to be hurried.”

Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays

In high school, and later exposure in college, I was fascinated by 19th Century philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Each held core beliefs that the Divine pervades Man and the natural world. In an article published in 2019, author Ryan Clancy summed up Transcendentalism as “belief in the unification of all things, the “goodness” of mankind, and the superiority of insight over logic”. Clancy notes that Thoreau wrote in Walden that to become preoccupied laboring to obtain the things that society deems important (“finer fruits”) and validation through what one does is defeating. Independence from those expectations allows us to appreciate the world. He also calls the like-minded to resist Government whose agenda and policies oppose personal freedoms. In the essay Nature, Clancy notes Emerson emphasizes independence but not as opposition to something, but in order to appreciate the natural world. Emerson states independence is a spiritual experience, an appreciation (“wild delight”) we feel when present in the wilderness, relieving the “sorrows” and burdens that are a part of life.

The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lessons of worship

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 -1882, emersoncentral.com

In a practical sense, the freedom that Thoreau sought for society apart from Government is not truly present in our world today. Nor is the spiritual appreciation of the natural world, that is, the origin of everything “good” in the Divine. Apart from reliance on God, many are burdened by laboring in the hope that work will keep our families fed and shelter us from an increasingly secular and hostile world. Some look to people to lead us into prosperity. Others have relied on past promises that education will provide the means to attain luxuries – the “finer fruits”. Many work longer and harder, sacrificing freedom to have not just luxuries but to meet basic necessities. Many have incurred debt to achieve what our governments call prosperity. Others work as a social responsibility so governments will provide our necessities. In such circumstances, there is little opportunity to appreciate the natural world – the wilderness that Thoreau escaped into at Walden pond. 

After many disappointments with secular thinking, a resurgence is occurring among people seeking refuge in the Divine. When cultural wisdom, academia, and government fail to relieve our sufferings, God still shows us a way forward. Through transcendentalist thinking, we can escape our circumstances like Thoreau, or believing in “goodness” that the Divine holds out to us, like Emerson, appreciate the natural world and the people in it. We must still labor to provide our necessities but should not conform to the world’s expectations. Jesus said that a trouble-free life is not possible but instead holding onto a spiritual center will ultimately reveal the finer fruits. Take the opportunity to encourage a neighbor, help with a Food Bank, be a “Candy Striper” in a hospital for bit, or go on hikes with friends. Walk with your spouse in a park after a particularly taxing work week. Attend a church, synagogue or mosque to experience the Divine. Take your young grandchildren to a playground and interact with them for a couple hours. Participate in a local Rotary or other service organization in your community. These will foster in each of us the positive attitudes that these philosophers and others espouse.