HENRY DAVID THOREAU OPINED THAT 'THE MASS OF MEN LEAD LIVES OF QUIET DESPERATION.'
Thoreau's essay 'Walden' might be read as an attempt to record some of the variety of ways in which our lives can become desperate as we chase after wealth or fame, or desperately seek to scratch out a living. It is altogether possible to live a life of polymorphous desperation, i.e., to be desperate in a multitude of ways.
Many of us are desperate to acquire wealth or fame, and desperate about our health, or about the health of our loved ones, or desperate about being alone in the world, or about what will become of us after our death. There are literally so many things to be desperate about that one almost despairs of ever being free of this desperate state. Perhaps desperation is our most basic or primal state. Is there not, after all, something desperate about life itself?
Life sometimes seems like an endless profusion of desperate activity: seeking endlessly to survive, and to propagate oneself and one's kind while fending off the desperate horde of barbarians at the gate. Is not every tribe of humanity and every living thing desperate to assimilate as much of the planet's abundance as possible?
It may seem this way on the surface, but underneath the surface, a calm wisdom is possible, if only we can quiet the endless seeking of our restless souls.
So, perhaps we should quiet our soul and heed the voice of God. ✲
