Transcendentalism

I have been reading "Where I Lived and What i Lived For" by Henry David Thoreau.
While reading Thoreau, all i want to do is move into the woods,
Chop down some trees and build my own house,
Not buying the land or getting permits or filing any papers.
Why?
Simplicity.
And Escape.
Christmas is fast approaching,
And with it comes the fashionable fads,
New programs, diets, desires, and beliefs,
Expectations, inventions, gifts, and clutter.
And distractions.
As a Christian, it is necessary to identify the intentions of Christmas.
But, it is just as necessary to notice the reality of it.
And here is where i like what Thoreau, and others of the Transcendental movement say about
Truth, reality, and our place among the two.
In an essay, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes:

"So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect, — What is truth? and of the affections, — What is good? by yielding itself passive to the educated Will. ... Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of the spirit."

The desert of life proves an eternal thirst for its inhabitants.
And so we drink the next remedy for our dry pallet.
Whether poison or pleasing, our tongue turns to sand.
Emerson (and others) thus suggest that we look at truths and reality as an overarching theme
And stand firm in our convictions. A sort of pseudo post-modernism.
But instead of finding truth in experience,
One finds it in thought.
However, i recognize the dangers:
How can there be truth in what we think?
How can one reality "transcend" all personal thought?
How can idealism be attached firmly in the natural realm?
But i am struck by this question:
Do these dangers outweigh the imminent threat poised by an acceptance of the newest experience, trend, or affection?
As Americans, we are told to buy, spend, consume, or else fall behind.
But, the simplicity of a consistent culture is a new temptation.
The simplicity of things being and not changing.
And so, when i read about Thoreau and his wooded escape in Massachusetts, i envy his experience
Because he is free from the bondage of culture.
He has escaped the slavery of consumerism, materialism, and the next "best thing."
The burden of "brand new" removed,
His escape to nature proved to produce
not only great literature, but great thinking as well.