Thoreau's "Economy"

     I found the first chapter of "Economy" to be rather compelling, because I think Americans could learn a lot from Thoreau's ideas of simplicity.  The standard of living he writes about is a lot lower than the standard of living many Americans think they deserve.  We want nice things, and a lot of them.  Many people, myself included, even own things they never use, just because they can.  Thoreau criticizes this materialistic way of life, saying that we live this way because we've been trained to by our society.  What he suggests is to throw off the expectations of society and learn to live differently, and he suggests we do this by experiencing nature.  Nature offers simplicity, and one can realize that they need only the necessities in life, and not much more than that.  This is something that is challenging for me, because even though I am well aware of the consumeristic, materialistic ways of our society, it's still difficult to stay away from the influence it has over me.  I fall into the same camp as many other Americans, believing that material things can make me happy.  But in order to have these material things, we must work--a lot.  And as Thoreau points out, if we had a lower standard of living and wanted less things, we wouldn't have to work as much.  We could live a life of leisure and be content having just what we need.  These are good things to be aware of as Americans, especially as Christians living in America.  How we choose to spend our time is important to think about, and we don't want to waste it away on the clock.