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Thursday, April 23

“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 practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily 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 its lowest terms, and, it it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its 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. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to ‘glorify God and enjoy him forever’” 

~Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For

As human beings, we are each masterpieces. Each of us is worthy of love, dignity, and respect. 

Journal: Write about the characteristics you have that make you a unique masterpiece. Tell me what is good about you. Discuss at least three things about you that make you worthy of love, dignity, and respect. Don’t be shy! Brag on yourself!

Friday, April 24

“Alex used to sit at the bar in the Cabaret and read that belt for hours on end, says Westerberg, “like he was translating hieroglyphics for us. Each picture he’d carved into that leather had a long story behind it.” When McCandless hugged Borah goodbye, she says, “I noticed he was crying. That frightened me. He wasn’t planning on being gone all that long; I figured he wouldn’t have been crying unless he intended to take some big risks and knew he might not be coming back. That’s when I started having a bad feeling that we wouldn’t never see Alex again.”

Into the Wild, Chapter 7

At the beginning of Into the Wild, not long after he begins his journey, Christopher McCandless has his only real possession, his crappy old car, washed away in a flood. From then on he must complete the rest of his journey by foot. 

Journal: If you could wash away some things from your past and just start over again, what would you send away in the flood? What are some things you would hold on to if you could? What do you value enough to carry with you on your journey?

Thursday, April 16

“One morning I was shaving in a restroom when an old man came in, and observing me, asked me if I was ‘sleeping out’. I told him yes, and it turned out that he had this old trailer that I could stay in for free. The only problem is that he doesn’t really own it. Some absentee owners are merely letting him live on their land here, in another little trailer he stays in. So I kind of have to keep things toned down and stay out of sight, because he isn’t supposed to have anybody over here. It’s really quite a good deal, though, for the inside of the trailer is nice, it’s a house trailer, furnished, with some of the electric sockets working and a lot of living space. The only drawback is this old guy, whose name is Charlie, is something of a lunatic and it’s rather difficult to get along with him sometimes.”

Into the Wild, Chapter 5

By the time I was eighteen years old I had already fallen in love and had my heart broken. That would happen again several times afterward. Eventually, I would forgive and become friends with *almost* every single person who broke my heart. 

Journal: Tell me about a time when your heart was broken. It doesn’t have to be romantic love, it could be any relationship that hurt you. Do you feel a desire to see that relationship restored? Can you imagine forgiving that hurt? How does that look in your mind? 

Friday, April 17

It was formerly the custom in our village, when a poor debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute him, looking through their fingers, which were crossed to represent the grating of a jail window, “How do ye do?” My neighbors did not thus salute me, but first looked at me, and then at one another, as if I had returned from a long journey. I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker’s to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour, –for the horse was soon tackled—was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off; and then the State was nowhere to be seen.

This is the whole history of “My Prisons.”

~Civil Disobedience, Thoreau

Journal: Henry David Thoreau is one of many philosophers who spent some time in jail. He was put in prison for failure to pay taxes. Imagine yourself behind bars for several weeks, like Thoreau. Write a letter to your friends and family. 

Song of the Day: My Hometown, by Charlie Robinson. Song selection by B.H.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg1pYtoWL6c

Monday, April 13

“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. Shall I not call God the Beautiful, who daily showeth himself so to me in his gifts? I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely and the noble-minded, as from time to time they pass my gate. Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, — a possession for all time. Nor is nature so poor but she gives me this joy several times, and thus we weave social threads of our own, a new web of relations; and, as many thoughts in succession substantiate themselves, we shall by and by stand in a new world of our own creation, and no longer strangers and pilgrims in a traditionary globe.” ~Emerson, “Friendship”

Although I find myself worrying on occasion during this time of uncertainty, it seems to happen most when I’m sitting in front of the television watching the news over and over. I’ve found that in order to be healthy and positive, I must limit my exposure to the news. The times when I feel the best and healthiest are those times when I’m helping someone. Even if it is as simple as making someone a sandwich. 

Journal: What are some of the ways you’ve been staying positive and healthy? Tell me about some of the activities you have done in the past few weeks that make you feel worse. 

Have you turned to your friends? What are you doing now to make yourself feel better? Are you helping your friends?

Song of the day: Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac (song suggestion made by H.D.)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_aYibUx1B8

Tuesday, April 14

“On February 24, seven and a half months after he abandoned that Datsun, McCandless returned to the Detrital Wash. The Park Service had long since impounded the vehicle, but he unearthed his old Virginia plates, SJF-421, and a few belongings he’d buried there. Then he hitched into Las Vegas and found a job in an Italian restaurant. ‘Alexander buried his backpack in the desert on 2/27 and entered Las Vegas with no money and no ID,’ the journal tells us. 

He lived on the streets with bums, tramps, and winos for several weeks. Vegas would not be the end of his story, however. On May 10, itchy feet returned and Alex left his job in Vegas, retrieved his backpack, and hit the road again, though he found that if you are stupid enough to bury a camera underground you won’t be taking many pictures with it afterwards. Thus the story has no picture book for the period May 10, 1991 – January 7, 1992. But this is not important. It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which the real meaning is found. God it’s great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.”

Into the Wild, Chapter 4

The phrase “cognitive dissonance” means a mental conflict that occurs when you hear new information. Our brains are wired in such a way that we typically feel discomfort with new information. We, as human beings, do not like to learn that we are wrong and our first reaction to change is often fear and anger.

Journal: Tell me the story of a time when you realized you were wrong about something. What was your reaction? Did you change your course of action or did you decide to stick with your original belief? Why?

Wednesday, April 15

“It is foolish to be afraid of making our ties too spiritual, as if so we could lose any genuine love. Whatever correction of our popular views we make from insight, nature will be sure to bear us out in, and though it seem to rob us of some joy, will repay us with a greater. Let us feel if we will the absolute insulation of man. We are sure that we have all in us. We go to Europe, or we pursue persons, or we read books, in the instinctive faith that these will call it out and reveal us to ourselves. Beggars all. The persons are such as we; the Europe, an old faded garment of dead persons; the books, their ghosts. Let us drop this idolatry. Let us give over this mendicancy. Let us even bid our dearest friends farewell, and defy them, saying, ‘Who are you? Unhand me; I will be dependent no more.’ Ah! Seest thou not, O brother, that thus we part only to meet again on a higher platform, and only be more each other’s because we are more our own? A friend is Janus-faced: he looks to the past and the future. He is the child of all my foregoing hours, the prophet of those to come, and the harbinger of a greater friend. It is the property of the divine to be reproductive.” ~Emerson, Friendship

Beauty is something to which we are naturally drawn as human beings. Sometimes we find beauty in a human face. Sometimes it is evident in nature. Beauty is made available to us in great art and literature. Personally, I seek out beauty in nature. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen was a sunrise at the top of a volcano in Hawaii. It was so beautiful that it actually made me cry. It is also said that beauty exists in the eye of the beholder, meaning different people find different things beautiful. Maybe a volcano is something ugly to you. But no doubt you have experienced beauty in some way.

Journal: Describe the most beautiful sight you’ve ever seen. Paint a picture for me with your words. Did you find beauty in a person, a place, a piece of art? What was it about that thing that made it so beautiful to you?

Thursday, April 9

“These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

A phrase called “fight or flight” is often used to describe human physiological reaction to fear. But that phrase almost always leaves out a third option: freeze. Deer do that when your headlights shine in their eyes. Their first reaction is to freeze. 

The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a physiological reaction that occurs in the presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically. The response is triggered by the release of hormones that prepare your body to either stay and deal with a threat or to run away to safety.

The term ‘fight-or-flight’ represents the choices that our ancient ancestors had when faced with danger in their environment. They could either fight or flee. In either case, the physiological and psychological response to stress prepares the body to react to the danger. (Sourced from Levi Keehler, Consulting and Counseling for Community Change, PLLC and The Very Well Mind)

Journal: Write an essay on how you naturally respond when you feel fear. Do you fight, run away, or freeze? What do you wish you would do in response to fear? Discuss something you fear and how you wish to respond.

Song of the Day: Life’s Been Good, Joe Walsh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXWvKDSwvls

Friday, April 10

“You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent,” Westerberg reflects, draining his third drink. “He read a lot. Used a lot of big words. I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often. A couple of times I tried to tell him it was a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff, but Alex got stuck on things. He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.” ~Into the Wild, Chapter 3

When I was young there was a place off in a field where I would go by myself. There was a little stream out there and a big tree had fallen across the stream. I would go out there and climb up on that tree to daydream and watch the tadpoles flit around in the water under my feet. That was my secret place. If my parents got in a fight or I felt sad, even when I was happy, I loved to go there just to be silent and peaceful. 

Journal: Where do you go when you need to find some peace? Do you have a secret place? If so, describe for me what it looks like. If you don’t have a secret place, imagine a place that would be perfect for you. Describe your perfect secret place. What does it look like?

Song of the Day:

Something Big by Shawn Mendes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mytLRy32Viw