Ash Robertson

Bisera

Due Nov 4th, 2019

Polished Piece Transcendentalism

The Sand’s of Nature

How often do we find ourselves lost in a desert of sand?

For we walk beneath a sea of dunes that can tower over any city view, ​“ Still we live meanly, like

ants”​ scurrying across the desert floor searching for one thing to another.

Like the victims of human nature, we mosey along like walking cactus searching for a meager

oasis oblivious to the desert's interminable view. For if we only knew to​“ Simplify, Simplify,

Simplify”​ the desert's surface would not seem so cold and her presence so unsettling.

Though her presence was once most evident, from every stone, river, and tree, now only tied to

the boundaries from which she has been given. Now only seen on road maps and preservation

signs, while ​“ The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation ''​...

However some swayed from this current’s flow,

Those who saw that​ “ The universe is wider than our views of it”​, some of their memories

preserved at the edge of ​Walden Pond,​ where Thoreau found the simplicity and contentment of

nature, and in the binding of his book​ Civil Disobedience​ that grew to challenge our societies’

Walking cactus : cactus that uplift their roots and "walk" across the desert in search of
water
view. Their voices can still be heard in the rhyming verse of​ “ Oh Captain, My Captain” ​by

Walt Whitman, for it also laced in the film ​Dead Poets Society...

More often than not does the desert sand seem to swirl around you like a sandstorm as if trying

to recreate the meaningless life you have been living. Trying to resonate a voice in one’s life to

come hither, back to your rightful place, and not to be some idle face buried beneath the desert’s

sand; for those later who would discover that ​“When I came to die, discover that I had not

Lived.”

If only the travelers that wander across this great desert were to simply​ “Look Up”​ for a mere

moment to see the facade their world would have them believe. That their contentment in life fits

inside of their hands, that their true purpose in life lies in a commute to a nine to five profession.

If only these pilgrims could see that their desire for money has only cloaked and hindered their

connection to this desert of sand.

For now, it would seem these wanders have lost their curiosity and passion to see the world as it

could be, for they would never guess to think of ​“ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”​, or

what could become of one's life if they choose the path less taken by...

Word Count: 437

Walking cactus : cactus that uplift their roots and "walk" across the desert in search of
water