Oliver, Transcendentalism and ...

Today is Mary Oliver's birthday. Her poems are really important to me. I recently read her first book. I've read 15 of her books. I have a few pdfs of some hard to find books to read and I'm currently reading her final anthology. I really get something from her poems. 

Two days before was the birth of Transcendentalism anniversary on September 12, 1836, in 2 days. Oliver has some reverence for what may be the first literary movement in America, and references Emerson and Thoreau.  

Smack in between these two important days is 9/11, the day America had an illusion of isolation shattered. We could just remember we're all interconnected, there's interbeing, and that some disgruntled people are willing to wage asymmetrical wars that they can't win, just want some attention for their concerns. Not a great way to get things done, but it does get one's attention. 

There's a similarity to October 7th in Israel last year, but that surprise was more about an unwillingness to work for change through peaceful methods and Arafat walking away from peace accords in 2001.

I wish to draw my attention to positive things like Mary Oliver's poetry, and the birth of literary movements in America. 

What does that have to do with walking in nature? I suppose Mary Oliver's nature poetry and the transcendental movement are vital to walking in nature. 

Rousseau

Mountain Landscape, by Soga Shōhaku, ca. 1761-1763

Japanese prints make man small and nature big.

Rousseau is at the heart of going back to nature phantasy, that the Concord Transcendentalists connect with. By postulating that society corrupts and doesn't corrupt, he rightly points out that owning land was the start of when nature is not allowed to be free.

I was trying to explain to my daughter how the Portuguese could exploit Japan's isolation in the TV show Shogun(2024), there was a time when information didn't flow as freely as it does now. It begins to flow more freely with writing, then radio, then TV, then cable, then internet.

Rosseau wasn't so hostile to civilization, he says the opposite, forgets his repudiation like all good dialectic thinkers. Civilization is amazing too, helpful, supportive.

I feel a kind of tug by Dionysian ecstasy, and civilization. Yesterday in Madison Wisconsin, they arrested 80 revelers at the Mifflin Street Party (source). You are allowed to be wild and dress up for sporting events, Mardi Gras, Halloween to get candy. Religions want to harness this energy, if they're smart. Milarepa thought he got enlightened after a beer, after sitting in meditation year after year so that there were calluses on his butt. He wrote poetry and sang his songs. 

There's also unrealistic nostalgia in harkening back to an ideal time that never really existed. Going back to nature might not be what you really think it is. Our internal input is the most important thing we have, that is who we are. Some people think it's listening to God even. Uncovering our Buddha-nature. 

Small not on style, I'm no sure whether it's Buddha Nature, buddha nature, Buddha nature or Buddha-nature. Wikipedia has the last. 

Back to Rousseau. I found it shocking that he gave up all 5 of (probably) his children with Theresa to orphanages. Going back to nature was just a simplified version of callousness to him, and honestly I lost all respect for him.

I wonder how he could write Emile, about education, if couldn't be bothered to raise his children. Then I realized it was about how he would have liked to have been educated. An extension of his theories.

When I was younger, I thought the ideas were pretty important, but I think what you do speaks the loudest and crimes against humanity are always an empathy gap. That is the biggest problem and the most unnatural thing. 

Still, I like this idea (Strathern 2002, p.56): He specifically states that "in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, nor be poor enough to be forced to sell himself." The state should "allow neither rich men nor beggars."

Mr. Five Willows (Wuliu), Tao Yuanming 

Thoreau

In a way I don't like the name of this blog, because, I'm not sure, but walking in nature is really appropriate actually. 

I'm going to wake up and start writing about Thoreau every morning. I'm working on a book about thoreau, and this public journal will be part of my writing process.

I was thinking about how strict and backward the education at Harvard. Thoreau got lucky to spend some time working with Orestes Brownson. He's a minor figure in the movement, but he was in the movement, and wrote a theological book that I'm not going to read. Theology is perhaps the least interesting aspect of the whole movement. I found it fascinating that the Wikipedia article didn't mention Thoreau's time with the family for a few months. That kind of thing signals perhaps an obsession with certain people. 

I fell asleep listening to Nature by Emerson. Uninterested in it, but maybe I'll catch some interest somehow letting the words wash over me.

Saw a strong recommendation for reading the Journals, and I'm looking forward to reading that. There are journals at the Morgan in New York. Found this video of Walls talking about the book she wrote. They have his desk at the library. I'd like to go to the Concord Museum sometime. In her talk she conveys how much his mother and sister loved him. She talks about being social and friendly. She's good as seeing how silly it is to belittle Thoreau for having his family do his laundry. He ate a chipmunk, but evolved towards vegetarianism. Alcott recommended living on vegetables, nuts and berries. He didn't quit eating fish, but he worried about it, and moved towards it. He was curious about Native Americans. She ends, "A man both in and out of time." (Found another talk, this time from Harvard Divinity School)

Supposedly when Walt Whitman's parents got married the sun was orange in 1816, like it was briefly, last week. A little smoke from forest fires is not the same as volcanic ash in the atmosphere, one is short term and the other one last a little longer. But it gives a taste and flavor.

The other character that came forth from Thoreau's life is Thaddeus William Harris, an entomologist who they didn't have a professor spot open for, so they made him librarian. No mention of Thoreau in his Wikipedia article.  

Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an abolitionist from the times. He wrote Part of a Man's Life. He was an abolitionist. There are so many thorns in the sides of America. 

I read today that Trump asked the Saudi to cut production to raise gas prices during the pandemic. It was a big thing for everyone to say Biden rose gas prices, but there's no outrage at this revelation? The political bias is about pointing out the other sides mistakes, not about integrity and accountability, which makes me sick. 

I work hard to understand my political bias, and understand there's democracy with both sides, and the two side idea isn't really accurate, there as many variations of political bias interpretations. The bias is because we have to theorize because it's too complicated. I still respect the wisdom of my bias and try to curb when it's not appropriate. 

Treat Williams died at age 71, and I'm watching his singing "I got life" in Hair, and I can't help but think that song was influenced by Thoreau. 

Proust liked Emerson and Thoreau.

Links:

Why Henry David Thoreau Would Have Hated Social Media

Quote from Journal Introduction by Damion Searls:

In the course of his life Thoreau may have discovered a species of bream, perfected the technology of manufacturing pencils, and anticipated modern techniques of cranberry farming, but his most lasting discoveries were about the interactions of different systems: how the seasons affect water levels, how animals propagate seeds, how one growth of forest trees succeeds the previous one, how the lake affects the shore or the river the riverbanks, and, most centrally, how the life he led shaped Henry David Thoreau and vice versa.

Transcendentalism

 

My meditation view.

Transcendentalism was trying to shuck off restrictive Puritanical thinking gone off the rails. Too much clamping down leads to weirdness. As the beats extended the movement to hedonistic absurdity, it took a turn back into Buddhism. Not fusty Buddhism but the freedom loving Buddhism.