\chapter{Thoreau}

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\lettrine[lraise=0.0, nindent=3pt]{I}{n} 1862, Henry David Thoreau published a short piece called ``Walking'' in which he said:

\epigraph{I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is of taking walks—who had a genius, so to speak, for \textit{sauntering}…}{\textit{Atlantic Monthly}, 1862}

He goes on to give a long (and possibly incorrect) definition of the word \textit{saunter}, but his point is still valid: we rarely, if ever, just saunter any more. All our motion is with purpose, with intent; we are determined to get somewhere else from here and to do something once we get there. We do not know how to just wander around for the sake of wandering around.

It is, perhaps, part of the danger of the present age. We no longer know how to relax, how to rest, how to simply \textit{exist} for a short span of time. Under the relentless heavy weight of capitalism, everything we do must be commodified. We must have a social media presence, and we must make the most of that. Obey the algorithm (although the algorithms that social media companies use are deeply held secrets and we are not privy to how they actually work), push your product, push your brand, be your brand, etc., etc. 

It was easier before the internet, and it was not nearly as difficult before smart phones became ubiquitous. I am one of the last generations to grow up before computers were a thing seen only in movies and television shows, although I worked with them in middle school and high school and even managed to own one. But they were like a chess set in those days—something to be brought out when you were bored or in a mood, and then to be put away again when other aspects of life became more important. Even after the internet became widely and cheaply available it still used to just live in a corner of your living room. You could turn it off. We used to be excited about getting an email, now we are inundated with them. We could shut down a computer and open a door and leave the internet behind. Now, it hitches a ride in our pocket and follows us everywhere. 

Now when we saunter, it is on the internet. ``Going down a rabbithole on the internet'' is now a thing, but we are not sauntering to disconnect. If anything, we are desperate to connect, to find others like us. We want to find others to connect with to disconnect from the existential horrors of the modern world.

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