If Life Were Simplified

          Henry David Thoreau said, “ I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, … to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness out of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience...”  What he meant was that he wanted to isolate himself and simplify life to find what is really important, and if it were harsh or nasty, he would show the world how harsh it is, but if it were nice, he would want to experience it himself.  I agree that people do need to know what is most important in life, I just highly doubt that people would want to experience life without all the luxuries they have available.


          A lot of Americans spend any extra cash they have on new gadgets, trips, cars, etc. But are these items really worth the money or are they just cool toys to entertain ourselves with?  If People were stripped of all their goods, what would happen? Complete chaos. If life were simple, people would get bored, and being bored is not good for the mind.  Sure we see primitive villages and tribes with nothing but hunting and agriculture to keep them busy, but I honestly can’t see Americans dropping everything to go live on the land.  Maybe some would try this new way of life, but only a minority, not the majority.  


          If a simple life were sublime, then I would jump right into it.  My life is encumbered with multiple annoyances and stress due to modern devices. For instance, I love my phone, couldn’t live without it, but the stress it causes me is almost unbearable!  I have to text someone almost every minute, if I don’t, I feel weird.  I have become so attached to my phone it should just be fused into my body.  If life were simple and I didn’t have to worry about who is saying what or nonsense like that, I could finally be at peace.  I could sit back without having to check my phone every ten seconds.  A simple life can work for some people in certain ways, but not everyone is ready to adapt to this idea.