Trails of Thought

While on my “Thoreauvian” walk, I discovered that it’s not necessarily best to have a destination in mind; in fact, I was more self-engaged and contemplative when I didn’t really know where I was going. Time passed more quickly than I had expected to, and I travelled farther than I thought I would have without realizing it. One of the subjects of my paper was defining a boundary, and on my walk, I arrived at the conclusion that in many cases, boundaries aren’t limited to geographical terms, but can also be defined as a diffusion of sensation. As I moved away from campus, I thought less and less about the tribulations of my day and more on subjects that had been moved into the back of my mind — subjects that were surprisingly relevant to my new experiences at college. I also thought a lot about one of the Thoreau’s quotes that troubled me. He explains to his readers that, “if you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother, and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again—if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled your affairs, and you are a free man—then you are ready for a walk”. Although it’s a romantic thought, I find that it’s not a very realistic one. The concluding thought of my paper played with the idea of choosing between humanly love and peace in nature.