Here are some excerpts from Thoreau's _Walden_ cast in today's English:

11 responses total.

We have "Professors of Philosophy" up the wazoo, but no 
philosophers any more.  How come?  I mean, the reason we *study* 
philosophy is that it must've been good to *live* it once upon a 
time, right?  If you want to be a philosopher, it isn't enough to 
have deep thoughts, or even found a school.  You have to love 
wisdom so much that you live your life by it, a life of simplicity, 
independence, generosity and trust.  You have to actually solve 
some of the problems of life - not just in theory, but in practice.  

The people who pass for great thinkers nowadays are more like 
groupies than superstars.  They aren't original at all, they're 
just conformists who live the same way everyone else lives, the 
same way their parents lived.  They aren't making the future any 
better than the present.  Why does everything seem to be getting 
worse all the time?  Why is Bill Clinton even sleazier than George 
Bush, and George Bush even sleazier than Ronald Reagan?  And if you 
think "progress" is making a mess out of society, what do you think 
it's doing to you personally?  

If you want to know who the *real* philosophers are, look for 
people who are ahead of their time not in their ideas but in the 
way they live.  The *real* philosophers aren't fed, sheltered, 
clothed or warmed like the rest of us.  How could they be?  How 
could they be real philosophers and not manage to do all of those 
things better than the rest of us? 

I don't want to give advice to the exceptional sort of people who 
can make and spend millions without letting themselves be corrupted 
by it - if there are any such people.  And I don't want to give 
advice to people who actually find encouragement and inspiration in 
their everyday lives, and who cherish their present circumstances 
with the enthusiasm of lovers, whether they're rich or poor.  (I'm 
kind of like that myself.)  And I don't want to give advice to 
people who are well-employed.  (And you know who you are.)  

No, the people I'm talking to in this book are the great majority 
of men and women who are unhappy with their lives, the ones who 
waste so much time complaining about how they hate their jobs or 
what a mess the country is in, instead of getting off their asses 
and doing something about it.  I also have in mind people you'd 
think are pretty well-off, but who really are the poorest of all.  
I mean people who have a nice house in the suburbs, and two cars, 
and a CD player, and a whole wall full of books - but they never 
have time to enjoy them, and they can't get rid of them.  They've 
forged their own handcuffs out of gold and silver. 

It always amazes me how no one ever seems to have considered what 
the purpose of a house is.  People go into debt and stay in debt 
their whole lives because they think they have to have a house just 
like everyone else.  But isn't that like wearing whatever sort of 
clothes the tailor decides to make for them?  Don't they have any 
choice in the matter?  Anyone can imagine an even bigger and better 
house that they couldn't possibly afford to pay for.  Do we always 
have to have more, and not sometimes be just as happy, or even 
happier, with less?  The example we set for our children is that 
before they die they *must* provide a certain number of baths and 
half-baths, and empty guest bedrooms for empty guests.  And our 
furniture!  Let me tell you something:  The only items I had on my 
desk were three chunks of rock, and I threw *them* out the window 
as soon as I realized that I had to dust them off every morning 
before I'd even had a chance to dust off the thoughts in my head.  
I'd rather sit in the open air.  No dust gathers on the grass, 
unless you're near a construction site.  

An honest person hardly ever needs to count more than his ten 
fingers.  In an emergency, he can always add his ten toes.  
Simplicity, simplicity simplicity!  There should be two or three 
items on your calendar for the year, not a hundred.  Why make life 
any more complicated than it already is nowadays?  Simplify, 
simplfy.  Instead of three meals a day, eat one meal.  Why not?  
Instead of soup, salad, main course, and dessert, why not just 
soup?  Reduce everything else in the same way.  

Why should we always be rushing around from place to place?  People 
say, "A stitch in time saves nine," and then they sew a thousand 
stitches today to save nine tomorrow.  As for work - well, we don't 
work, we *fuss* at things.  We can't even wake up from a half-hour 
nap without asking what we missed while we were napping.  

Personally, I could do without the telephone.  I don't think I've 
received more than a dozen phone calls in my life that were worth 
the price of the phone bill.  And I never watch TV anymore.  When 
you've seen one mass murderer, you've seen them all.  If you're 
acquainted with the general principle, what do you need a hundred 
specific examples of it for?  Give me a few minutes and I could 
invent an entire segment of CNN headline news and you'd never know 
I was making it up.  In fact, except for the collapse of communism, 
there's *been* no news for at least the past ten years.  

People think the crap they see on TV is all rock-solid truth, but 
reality is like a fairy tale to them.  If people would concentrate 
only on what's real, and not let themselves be fooled, life would 
be like the most exciting novel you ever read.  If we concentrated 
only on what is inevitable and has a right to exist, music and 
poetry would fill the air.  If someone would walk through your town 
and then tell you about the realities he saw there, you wouldn't 
recognize the place from his description.  People think truth is 
some remote thing, beyond the farthest star.  But it's here and 
now.  God Himself culminates in the present moment, and will never 
be holier than He is right now.  And we are able to see what is 
holy and beautiful only by constantly focusing on the reality which 
is all around us.  

Thanks, MD!  I think I've been missing out for a very long time not
getting around to reading Walden.  You've just given me the shove I
needed.

Did you do the "translation",md? The only thing missing, is to start each
paragraph with "Basically..."

Basically, this is awfully neat stuff.  Thanks, md!

Yep, the translation is mine.  I'm glad I've given you a shove, M.T.
I do hope it was a gentle one.  (Does this mean I have to do the
whole book now?)  I like that starting each paragraph with "Basically."
I might incorporate it into the second edition.  Thanx for the kind
word, remmers.  For sure, no prob.

fun stuff. when're you translating joyce, btw?

I don't think _them_ and _Wonderland_ need translating, do you?
(You're on first-name basis with her?  Do you know her personally?)

heh.

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