"Good Morning, Damn you!"

"In other days, men could sell all and give to the poor, lead lives devoted to holiness and high thought, and, after the persecution was over, find themselves honored as saints or martyrs. But in modern times these things are out of fashion. To live for one's principles, at all costs, is a dangerous speculation; and the failure of an ideal, no matter how humane and noble, is harder for the world to forgive and forget than bank robbery or the grand swindles of corrupt politicians."

     I highly enjoyed this quote from Louisa May Alcott's, "Transcendental Wild Oats," because it sums up my general feelings on Transcendentalism.   Her satire piece reflects upon the grand, noble hopes of Transcendentalists to achieve a better standard of living, while also mocking the inability of said Transcendentalists to hold unto practicality.   This lack of practicality has been one of my greatest "issues" in reading the works of Emerson and Thoreau.   I think that there are many insightful ideas about mankind in their works.  I particularly appreciated these concepts: men should strive not to be slaves to a profession, but rather to use a profession to allow them to live a free personal life.   Men should not follow laws and procedures which they find immoral.  Men should seek their own knowledge via experience instead of simply taking the words in books as the absolute truth.   There are more important things in life than jobs and structures of government.   However, I think that Louisa May Alcott touches upon the failings of these lovely ideas, by stressing that in modern times (her modern times, and our modern times)   it is not possible to simply give up the "ways of the world"  and retreat into nature with nothing.   One is left without a backup plan should things go wrong, and ultimately one loses the company of much of society, and, most of the work of survival can fall to one member of a group, which isn't fair to anyone.   I think that her piece helps us to see that Transcendentalism and the idea of retreating to nature and simplicity has its values, but that they must be balanced with practicality in order to be truly useful in a modern lifestyle.