Three Lines

Another ten-day delay. Like everything, I can find a reason.

In a recent post-new-year's post on 43F, Merlin linked to Thoreau's Walden, which to my (not great) surprise exists in its entirety on Wikisource. The section Merlin was quoting from is the introductory chapter, "Economy," which in turn contains the famous line: Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.

Like most Americans, I was given this to read and ignore when I was 14 years old. Y had been mentioning Thoreau too, just a few days ago. So the coincidence prompted me to re-read it, and I was struck by both the sentences before and after the famous line above:

After: What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. What a subversive hippie, that Thoreau.

But the line that hit closer to home was the one before:

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

A sentiment very near and dear to me.

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions, I had already made a basketful of them a couple of months earlier. And one of them: never be bored, and never do something out of simple boredom. There's no reason for it, always more opportunity for interest, and given the known-to-be-finite amount of time we all have here in the universe, why waste even one minute more than we have to? So: I've been busy.

Next post, coming rather sooner, will touch on three of the people I happened to encounter these past ten days.

January 31, 2006

 

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Comments on "Three Lines"

Myrtle Beach Rental
February 24, 2006 09:11 AM

It's amazing that when we were kids we were given such treasures and only as adults come to learn their value.

I feel sorry for todays kids who are being taught "Creative Thinking" rather than reading.

 

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