Thoreau vs. Peterson - A Lesson in Solitude
Like the water, the Walden ice, seen near at hand, has a green tint, but at a distance is beautifully blue, and you can easily tell it from the white ice of the river, or the merely greenish ice of some ponds, a quarter of a mile off. Sometimes one of those great cakes slips from the ice-man’s sled into the village street, and lies there for a week like a great emerald, an object of interest to all passers.
This excerpt from Thoreau’s novel Walden is a description of simple pond ice, yet it manages to be some of most stunning imagery I’ve ever come across. It’s not the run-of-the-mill kind of imagery you get from simply trying to think of words to describe a pond. Thoreau’s description is a series of carefully-prepared words used to describe a inordinately detailed level of observation.
This, of course, is no mistake. In Walden, Thoreau lives in complete solitude in a cabin he built next to Walden Pond, a pond outside Concord, Massachusetts. This solitude gave Thoreau time to think on the true nature of life. In my opinion, the most valuable lesson Thoreau teaches is the value of solitude and the deep contemplation that comes with solitude. In his own words,
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
The Petersonian View
Let’s now take a quote from Jordan Peterson, a well-known Canadian philosophy professor. Here he is speaking on the value of podcasts:
That’s the time when you’re driving or the time when you’re doing dishes. Now all of a sudden you can educate yourself during that found time.
Peterson’s concept of “found time” refers to time in which one is working on a simple task with an idle mind. According to Peterson, the power of the podcast is to put the power to idle mind to use and get educated.
At first glance, this seems like a wonderful suggestion.