Dated: April 7th, 2009
I have been thinking lately about withdrawing from society, temporarily or permanently, to an uninhabited island off the southern coastline. I've seen many of these people-free havens while fishing for marlin and albacore.
I see this conceptualized land as my personal Walden Pond. Though Thoreau's motives for reclusion are different than mine, like him as death approaches I do not want to realize that I haven't lived deliberately and for myself.
Society is a sentient being, much like the beings that compose it, and I feel that it deserves no more criticism than its constituents do. I do not want to withdraw from society because of its flaws, but because of my own. I am practically incapable of many social norms, and for the most part I find little happiness through interaction with others. I find the most enjoyable times of my life usually take place when I am alone.
I want to secede from society to spend my days reading, writing, thinking, and enjoying existence free from the social pressures that haunt everyone else. I will teach myself new things and every day I will better myself. I will feel the pride of the self-reliant man as I raise my crops and build my shelters. I will rely only on the natural cycles that make all life possible.
I will have no responsibilities other than to keep myself alive; this is a freedom most men will never even dream of. And in my subtropical Walden I will find the wisdom to truly understand and appreciate that freedom.
My current responsibilities and obligations prevent me from realizing my dream. If, by some miracle, I do make it to my Island, I will make sure those who love me understand that I leave only because a "normal" life, cast to society's mold, will just perpetuate my (by most counts illogical) feelings of inferiority.
I will secede.
I have been thinking lately about withdrawing from society, temporarily or permanently, to an uninhabited island off the southern coastline. I've seen many of these people-free havens while fishing for marlin and albacore.
I see this conceptualized land as my personal Walden Pond. Though Thoreau's motives for reclusion are different than mine, like him as death approaches I do not want to realize that I haven't lived deliberately and for myself.
Society is a sentient being, much like the beings that compose it, and I feel that it deserves no more criticism than its constituents do. I do not want to withdraw from society because of its flaws, but because of my own. I am practically incapable of many social norms, and for the most part I find little happiness through interaction with others. I find the most enjoyable times of my life usually take place when I am alone.
I want to secede from society to spend my days reading, writing, thinking, and enjoying existence free from the social pressures that haunt everyone else. I will teach myself new things and every day I will better myself. I will feel the pride of the self-reliant man as I raise my crops and build my shelters. I will rely only on the natural cycles that make all life possible.
I will have no responsibilities other than to keep myself alive; this is a freedom most men will never even dream of. And in my subtropical Walden I will find the wisdom to truly understand and appreciate that freedom.
My current responsibilities and obligations prevent me from realizing my dream. If, by some miracle, I do make it to my Island, I will make sure those who love me understand that I leave only because a "normal" life, cast to society's mold, will just perpetuate my (by most counts illogical) feelings of inferiority.
I will secede.