In 1854, Henry David Thoreau gave us what would become his most famous nonfiction book, Walden; or life in the woods. In this, Thoreau describes his project at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau decided that he would "deliberately" live in the woods for over two years, living on a limited economy and isolating himself from society to gain a more objective understanding of it. But the question must be asked: what does Thoreau mean when he says he wants to “live 'deliberately'”? Thoreau himself said that he wanted “to live deliberately, to face only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach me, and not, when I was about to die, find that I had not lived.” (Thoreau, 61) He wanted to live deliberately because he believed that the way we live in society is not really living, it is superficial. It is superficial because of our dependence on material things that in Thoreau's mind do not really matter and can be sacrificed without risking what Thoreau would call real life. Thoreau believes that our dependence on material objects is so great that we do not see the majesty of what this world has to offer, we cannot experience the grandeur of nature. So living “deliberately” would mean living with the basic essentials, building a small shelter to protect ourselves from the aggressive elements, living off the food we can grow or harvest, and cutting ourselves off from immense contact with society to understand our true purpose in the world . I would argue that Thoreau not only truly lived deliberately and became more knowledgeable in the ways of society, but also more knowledgeable in alternative ways of seeing something that is common in life, the human brain for example. Living deliberately is spectacle... middle of paper... the side was spiritual, not unlike spiritual retreats or pilgrimages of religions. The third side is more neurological and reaches his mind and that of his readers. After spending time in the woods, it would appear that Thoreau achieved a greater understanding of his own mind and its inner workings, developing something that most people do not. I think it would be safe to assume that almost no one would take the sight of a thawing floe and compare it to the neurological functioning of the brain. Works Cited "Brain" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. November 11, 2008, 1:21 pm UTC. November 11, 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brain&oldid=251094037Thoreau, Henry David, William John Rossi, and Henry David Thoreau. Walden; and Resistance to Civil Government: Authoritative Texts, Thoreau's Journal, Reviews, and Critical Essays. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.