[EDIT: in a moment of careless (but unsurprising) inattention, it seems like i wrote about day 24's prompt instead. how did this happen?? anyway, prompts 21-23 will now be set in days 22-24 to accommodate this mistake. sorry about that.]
i'm not sure why, but this prompt immediately made me think of henry david thoreau. if you don't know him, thoreau's this famous writer guy from the 1800s who at one point spent a couple of years in a cabin by walden pond. i guess that's where i made the connection, even though "writers' retreats" is a pretty broad topic.
so what's the point of writers' retreats? i think thoreau sums it up pretty nicely (in a rather large nutshell):
"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 practice 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, if 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."oof. that's a lot of text. bonus points to you if you actually read the whole thing before getting to this paragraph. i probably would've skipped it. hahaha!
i think the best way to understand this is to thoreau-ly dissect it. get it?? get it??
*sigh* i'm so unoriginal...
at the time i think thoreau's work was considered pretty prosaic, even though it seems like a fricking poetic masterpiece compared to some of today's literature. with a bit of close reading, it becomes a bit easier to wade through all the text and find the meaning. i'll identify some key points that i'm hoping are correct interpretations...
•thoreau's desire to "live deliberately" and "front only the essential facts of life" reflects his goal of learning more about the world by immersing himself in nature.
•by venturing out into nature, he also hopes to prevent his fear of "discovering that [he] had not lived" from happening by learning as much as he could through his experiences.
•i'm not 100% sure what he means by "resignation" in this context, but i think it's supposed to reinforce how he doesn't want to concede to subpar experiences ("live what was not life").
•the rest of it re-emphasizes how he wants to delve headfirst into his retreat. by discovering truths about life in nature, he hopes to discover the true nature of life. (wow, call me thoreau 2.0!!)
...okay, obviously i'm no poet. just goes to show how excellent of a writer thoreau was. heck, in this excerpt he's not even talking about the woods - he's talking about his reason for going to the woods. and yet, he makes it sound so captivating and raw. if you ask me, that's pretty incredible.
thoreau brings up a point that i wholeheartedly agree with - life itself is remarkably inscrutable, but the journey to uncover its true meaning is definitely worthwhile. i wonder what he'd think of how i discuss such a matter in my blog. would he approve? i sure hope so.
back to writers' retreats, then. as i've noted before, there are a lot of cool and crazy things about life that are inspirational to my writing. a lot of those things involve ideas from or interactions with other people. but not all inspiration comes from being around other people. sometimes the greatest discoveries come from being alone and the insight of solitude. no matter how they work with or depend on the presence of other people, all writers owe it to themselves to take a retreat every now and then. not necessarily to the woods like thoreau - any natural place of serenity will do. hiking up a mountain, relaxing on the beach, or even the comfort of one's own backyard (assuming one has a backyard, and a peaceful one to boot). though the idea of being away from others may frighten some people, it's a pretty rewarding experience. trust me, i'm an introvert. i know these things. you can tell from how i bring up that fact in every other post...
walden (well then), i guess we're thoreau (through) with this. now pardon me as i quit while i'm ahead...
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