Self-Reliance.
i’m convinced that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote his Essay on Self-Reliance just for me. Totally convinced of it. He has these lines in there, that when i read them, my soul is held accountable for all the things that aren’t real and/or authentic in my life. How. The fuck. Does. Someone. do that?
I’ve returned to his essay on nature more times than I can count. I mean, I knew early in my life, lacking guidance and any real adult mentorship, that books would play as parents, friends, family, and teachers. So, let’s just say that Emerson carved out a spot in my occipital lobe, and daily - in my frontal lobe. If for some reason you’ve been abandoned in your life so as to not be familiar with this essay, grab a copy. You’re welcome.
“The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instill is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe our own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—and our first thought, is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment.”
Just wonderful.
