books 23 Jun 2007 10:06 am
From Walden, by Henry David Thoreau
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturidly and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to it’s lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness out of it, and publish it’s meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
This, of course, is the quote that gave the name for my blog a few years ago. I re-read it today as part of the writing I’m doing on my book and every time, it’s just as inspiring as the first. Routing out all the “fake” in my world….living honestly and with integrity, even when it’s not always positive but mean even… giving a “true account”. It’s the essense for me; it’s what empowers the marrow-sucking. Because there can be no real savoring of life if we romanticizing reality or not confronting the ugly in the world; if we cling to the artificial that is all we’ll be left with in the end.
