Never too much to read, Always too little time

There can never be "too much" to read. Maybe we're so caught in petty pursuits that it seems that way. Go work. Go consume. Go home, sweet, dysfunctional home. Keep going and never stop to live. 

Just keep going. Our "energizer bunny" culture tells us not to stop; it's hard to feel pain when rushed.  If we slow down, will we feel unsatisfied? Frustrated? Exhausted? Will we feel at all? If emotion seeps in, will our ad-sized attention spans turn it off? 

Working isn't always progress; stillness isn't always idleness. Slow down. Slow down, and feel. Feel power-crushing wind gusts. Feel your chapped lips and sore knees. Feel Poe, Beethoven,  Morrison. Feel what your soul yens for, and follow. 

Brick Wall

"We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control"

In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau implies that humans are innately good. Government should continue to bring order, but "the government that governs least governs best". Because, all in all, we'll all find the goodness within ourselves. We don't have to change the world...just ourselves.

What Thoreau doesn't address is how society makes this so, so difficult. Government, materialism, and the workforce impress reliance on the system. We live trying to keep the broken wheels spinning. Good is buried deep, deep down inside. But we just need to change ourselves, nobody else. Because, magically, everybody else will see the light.

"No dark sarcasm in the classroom"

Unless we are advocates for change, the wheels will never stop turning. People will not dig for gold. They will keep running into brick walls. And, no matter how many times they smash their bodies against the hard barrier, they will never alter their course. They are impaired by society's hard drugs. They will feel nothing. After all, how many times can you run into a brick wall before you grow numb...

"All in all you're just another brick in the wall"