Somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13, I remember imaging myself living in the house I grew up in (my parents rented it out for a year or two and it reasonable to talk of one day me owning it). In that vision of a life I would inherit my father's landscaping business and own almost nothing. I didn't picture owning furniture, just a rug where I would meditate. I would work, come home and meditate. I would not own a t.v.
This is my earliest memory of thinking I would not own a television, though I am sure reading Fahrenheit 451 and the profound impact it had on me played a big part. Nonetheless, after years of telling them what I would do, my parents were shocked when I moved out of their house and I didn't take a television with me. They hadn't listened to me, so my actions got to speak more loudly than my words. I had begun my Walden years.
The first 6 months I didn't even have the internet. I don't remember that as particularly productive time, but it was worth noting how peaceful it was. I'm a fairly private person, so I didn't have as many "are you crazy" conversations as you might have thought, but I do remember one time explaining to a particularly dubious person that I would listen to the radio to "create enough noise," but really never happened. I learned to work in silence. I caught up on my sleep, and I listened myself think.
I also took up wine tasting to see if there was anything to all the fuss, and found that really wasn't. But I still have a lovely memory of a beautiful spring day, laying on my couch, listening to the breeze, sipping a Merlot, and reading Nietzsche. I read incredibly slowly, stopping to think often, and the birds sand their lovely songs. It's hard to improve on a moment like that, even with a meditation mat (something which I didn't and do not own).
Though being unplugged from the world of instant information was an interesting and worthwhile experience, I got the internet and while I spent the last four and a half years which I lived on my own without a television, I had to find other ways to be unconventional. For example, I started watching a bunch of videos on YouTube, but they happened to mostly fall into three categories: 1) gardening (useful and good idea) 2) YouTube polyglots (much more of an addiction -- one I find myself pulled into far too often). 3) Videos on computer programming. I learned how to program again (or really learn how to program the right way for the first time).
Thoreau's own time at Walden Pond ended after 2 years, and my time had to end as well. Now that I am married, we have a television, but I'd like to believe that the gravitational pull of my unconventional ways is responsible for the fact that my wife and I only watch it around 2 hours a week, though my wife does watch movies on it in addition to that.
From Walden and some of Thoreau's other writings, I have completely lost my earlier notion, more of a prejudice, that Thoreau was a "phony." Instead, I see his time at Walden as a stand he had to take, one that put him on a firm footing for the rest of his life.
I see my time when I lived alone the same way.
