Maybe you’re sitting in class trying to listen to your professor, but your laptop is open and you’re somewhere else. Maybe you’re getting coffee with a friend, you’re both on your phones, not ignoring each other, but not fully present either. We often find ourselves here, operating in multiple worlds and never committing ourselves to one. There is a lack of intention amongst our generation. We are all searching for purpose in a world that feels devoid of it. 

I want to highlight two more important observations about Gen Z: first, our fixation with aesthetic naturalism; the second, our shared responsibility regarding environmentalism. 

There is one author whose body of work explores all these themes: Henry David Thoreau. 

Thoreau was plagued by all the same internal conflicts that we are today. He is not the cantankerous hermit in the woods that you may have thought he was. This image is just one of the many ways he has been misinterpreted. He was truly a kind — if aloof — writer with a deep love of nature and of his fellow man, someone fully committed to his principles. 

Videos about “reconnecting with nature” or “van life” have drifted through all our media streams. Musicians like Noah Kahan, Ethel Cain and Hozier have gained popularity through their rustic American aesthetic. Even as children of the digital era we still yearn for some connection to nature. We may not vocalize it, but we all feel bogged down by our monotonous lifestyles. Thoreau felt the same in his time. Thoreau tried to escape this feeling through transcendentalism. 

Transcendentalism is a philosophical and social concept that sees all nature as the purveyor of divinity. Practically, transcendentalists had empathy for nature and appreciated all it could provide us. Thoreau’s most famous endeavor was his two-year stint at Walden Pond, responsible for his subsequently most famous work “Walden.” He built a small cabin on the borrowed land of another famous transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Here Thoreau wrote great literature, studied local flora and fauna and explored his solitude. 

Some think they can unmask a fraudulent Thoreau by noting that he had visitors to his cabin or that his mom did his laundry. Rebecca Solnit explores how ridiculous our obsession with his laundry is in “Mysterious of Thoreau, Unsolved.” It is important to note that Thoreau kept none of this secret. He was transparent in his endeavors. There is a whole chapter of “Walden” about his trips into town every other day. 

With this book our generation can find someone who has articulated the very ineffable connection we have to nature. If you have ever felt a strong curiosity or draw to nature but have felt constrained by the limitations of domestic life you will feel connected to this book. Pay attention to Thoreau’s opinions on how to live a deliberate and simplified life. Spend time looking at the world around you and ask yourself if you think you are living deliberately and of your own volition. This is the ultimate lesson of “Walden”: be observant and intentional. This book will make you want to question the world around you and finally stop accepting things at face value. It is a masterfully introspective exploration of the human condition and of nature. 

Environmentalism is, or at least should be, at the forefront of young people’s minds. We were born onto a planet beaten down by previous generations and most of us have joined in. But a decent chunk of us fears the apocalyptic crisis that could be our future. A survey focused on people aged 16-25 from The Lancet Planetary Health showed that 85 percent of respondents were moderately worried and 57.9 percent were extremely worried about climate change. Thoreau laid the early foundations of the environmentalist movement in America. 

AI and short form content has lessened our ability to be intellectually challenged. Reading and writing can provide us with these challenges and Thoreau conveys why it is so vitally important. The biggest technological advance of his time was a train that careered about a mile away from his cabin in “Walden.” Thoreau noted how the train created an abundance of convenience but pierced through the forest, disrupting nature. Read these moments in “Walden” in the context of AI. There are important questions that can be taken from Thoreau, questions of convenience vs ethics. AI may take away the stress of tedious tasks, but at what point does it take the importance of our thought process? Thoreau believed in leading an intellectually challenged life; in the chapter “Reading” he urges us “to be provoked, — goaded like oxen, as we are, into a trot.”

In class, learn to appreciate how difficult it may be to listen to your professor. Close your browsers and lower your laptop screen. Next time a friend hits you with the classic Yale nicety “let’s get a meal” maybe try to take a walk somewhere new.   

GRIFFIN SANTOPIETRO is a first year in Berkeley College. He can be reached at griffin.santopietro@yale.edu.