Essay Two Idealists

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What would happen if you brought in infamous Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the same room from their pasts and had them critique your life? Well, I believe that Thoreau and Emerson would highly disagree with the way I am living my life because I am living a complicated life, I do not question the ways of authority, and I aim to be well known as a hockey player. To start with, both Emerson and Thoreau would disagree with my abstruse life. Henry David Thoreau tests the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson about nature by living alone at Walden Pond. There he realizes that living simply upon nature deepens the mind, brings the soul up to its fullest potential, and influences the imagination to change our lives. Furthermore, in Nature, Emerson says, “Standing on the bare ground - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball”. In this point Emerson describes that a simple life creates deeper thoughts and one is able to see more clearly. In my complex life, four things take it up, eating, sleeping, studying and playing hockey. I wake up at 3:30 every morning, go to hockey practice, go to school, eat, and do homework until I fall asleep at around 8:00 PM, and it starts all over again. According to both philosophers, I should stop this life where I have no free time to develop my mind, my soul, and my imagination. Thoreau also says, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us”. This means that some things which we believe make our lives simpler actually make it more complicated. Both these men believe that in order to understand the meaning of life you must live simply. In summary, both these wise men would tell me to live a simpler life in order to develop my mind, soul, and imagination, “Nothing is more sacred than the integrity of your own mind.”- Emerson. Not only would they ask me to live a simpler life, but they would also ask me to question my complicated one. To end with, Emerson would attempt to steer me away from perusing my dream of becoming a professional hockey player. Emerson views greatness differently from me and society. We see greatness as a way of happiness and exhilaration. However, Emerson views things differently, “Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having my thoughts any occurrence of
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