Books, Philosophy
Reading Mary Oliver’s book Upstream has inspired me to read Emerson, and I’m starting with his essays. I’ve already written a bit about History and now I’m reading, possibly his most famous, Self-Reliance.
The basic thesis of this essay is that nonconformity is a virtue and that we should trust our own thoughts and intuitions. Each of us has our individual genius that will lie undiscovered if we’re just trying to fit in or imitate the greats. The thing that makes great people great is their individuality.
“Great works of art . . . Teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side.”
Where would The Rite of Spring and Five Nudes be if artists listened to the world?
“The power which resides in a man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”
I really resonate with this idea that each human is unique and has something valuable to contribute.
“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist . . . Nothing is at the last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. . . No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.”
“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius.”
I don’t know if I believe with this sentiment entirely—I think what is true and good for me is not actually what is true and good for all people, or even specific people. I think everyone has their own path. I only know my own path.
”I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation.”
I really liked this passage. I do think to create genius, to create great art or think great thoughts, you require solitude. And maybe to others it looks like whim, but how are we supposed to explain that we’re contemplating the life cycle of butterflies and that it is meaningful work that we’re doing inside our minds and hearts? I often find myself writing when everyone is asleep, because it’s the time when I can be truly on my own with my own thoughts.
“I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself.”
Expiate means to atone or to make amends. He argues that you don’t have to apologize for being yourself and fully embracing your ‘genius,’ whatever that may be. This really resonated from me. I come from a religious tradition, and a culture generally, that prizes self-sacrifice and ‘losing oneself’ to others or ‘the cause.’ And this burden is laid especially on women. This has never sat well with me. I’ve tried very hard to give all myself up, but ultimately I couldn’t. Some sturdy part of me refused to be broken, and for that I’m glad. I shouldn’t feel guilty for following my own path and devoting myself to the things that are meaningful to me, even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else.
“I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you.”
”What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. . . The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
I love this idea. That there is something steady inside you that can’t be bent or broken by other people or by circumstance. We all know people like this. “He’s his own person,” we’d say. Emerson is arguing that this is a virtue, to know yourself and to be yourself.
He also has a really interesting section on self-contradiction. He argues that you should be able to change your mind. I think this is brilliant. Too many people get caught up in this trap, thinking about how embarrassing it will be to admit you were wrong and you changed your mind. Why? Wouldn’t an intelligent person change their mind when presented with new facts? I also this in clinging to ideology or party lines, trying to justify things they don’t even agree with.
“The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency.”
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
“Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.”
So many good quotes. So many interesting ideas, many of which really resonated with me and continue to stay with me. I feel inspired to lean into my own self, my ‘whim,’ to insist on myself and believe my own thoughts.
”When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the footprints of any other; you shall not see the face of man; you shall not hear any name;—the way , the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new. It shall exclude example and experience. You take the way from man, not to man.” (Italics added)
“Insist on yourself; never imitate.”
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”