Blog #3

There were several things that I found interesting during both the reading and class discussion of Emerson and Thoreau. First of all, one of my favorite quotes of all time is Emerson's "transparent eyeball" quote. My high school english teacher always made use of it whenever she could and it is forever engrained in my mind. The other main thing that I found interesting with Emerson came when "Positive Aesthetics" was mentioned in our class discussion. I found this interesting because after I pondered my life and how I have been taught to view nature, I found that this is the way that almost everyone who has tried to teach me about nature as suggested I view it. Everything that has been presented to me about nature is always in a positive light, as if there is nothing about nature that is not beautiful. With "Walking" from Thoreau I found it was interesting to simply ponder what if meant to "walk" for Thoreau. Simply standing and moving our legs is not the kind of walking that is being talked about here. Walking for Thoreau is a pilgrimage (as we said in our class discussion). Thinking about that made me think about my entire life being a "walk" and having a holy purpose, which is what I believe God has given my life. Overall, going through Emerson and Thoreau was not new material for me, but it was interesting to refresh on the material and I thought more on what was being said this time through than I ever have in previous exposure to these texts.