Nature & Other Writings - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Part 4

Nature & Other Writings
Ralph Waldo Emerson

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 31

 January 31, 2017 

Book 7 - Nature and Other Writings
by Ralph Waldo Emerson (2003)
 Part 4 - Pages 91-179

Reading Time - 75 Minutes

A few of Emerson's essays today:

• Compensation
• Spiritual Laws
• The Over-Soul
• Circles
• The Poet

I have to admit, his essay on Compensation needs a second, and probably a third and fourth read. He starts by referencing a sermon her heard on the Last Judgement in which the preacher said the evil may prosper in this world, and the good might suffer... but that in the next world, the tables will be turned. Emerson argues that the law of action and reaction is present in nature and that the effect of evil actions will appear in this world. Maybe not immediately. Maybe only after decades, but they will appear. There is a push/pull in nature that we can't ignore. We want to have the sensual without the moral. We want to eat our chocolate and not have to pay with our waistlines. We want to lose weight without exercising. We look for the easy way... and Emerson's message is... there is no easy way. His overall argument is - you cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. This reminds me of the Vulcan (Star Trek) philosophy... The Spear in the Other's Heart is the Spear in Your Own. If we are all One... then what we do to the Other will affect us... at some point. One quote stuck with me:

The exclusionist in religion does not see that he shuts the door of heaven on himself, in striving to shut out others.

 Definitely something for major religions to keep in mind as they consider the "criteria" for membership in their congregations... and who they judge as being "condemned".

Emerson argues that even Fear is a retribution for "evil" acts. And always for us to remember that "I am my brother/sister and my brother/sister is me".

The Spiritual Laws essay starts off with a provocative statement - our young people are diseased with the theological problem of Original Sin, etc. Emerson's thought is this... that we don't need to struggle and despair. We are born with power. There is something that comes easy to us and is good when done. Something that no one else can do. If we follow that... we will be great. But so often we fit ourselves into society, fit ourselves into a career path that is not that. We become a tool instead of a self-creating being of power.

Emerson argues that the "way to speak and write what shall not go out of fashion is to speak and write sincerely". Love that sentence... ultimately it comes down to us being authentic. We need to Be who we are... not try to Seem to Be something that we are not. I also liked his thought that "he that writes to himself, writes to an eternal public". That's what I've learned about writing... is to write for me... not for someone else. If I write to me... I am being Me... being authentic to me... because I don't need to hide anything from me. Did I mention, I love Emerson?

The Over-Soul was a short essay and already I see how there is theme to Emerson's thought and essays. Our source is hidden, but we are part of the One, part of the divine. There is a distinction between some teachers/poets/writers... some speak from within, from their experience... and others speak from without, as spectators or what they received from a third party. Always with Emerson it is about first-hand experience. If we want to speak of God... we need to have an experience of God. "The faith that stands on authority, is not faith". Which makes me think... why are we so quick to shuffle off our own experience and grab hold of someone else's experience? We look for certainty... that someone has the "right" answer? That someone knows the "right" path to God? We doubt our own path? Or perhaps we think there is an easier path than self-discovery. "Just tell me what to believe, tell me what to pray, tell me what to do". We sell our souls, not to the devil, but to someone else's interpretation of the divine.

Circles was a very short essay but here's the gist... everything is circular. Life is always in flux, always in motion and we cannot see things from within things. If you want to see Christianity... better to see it from the pasture or the forest or the seaside. This resonates for me with First Nation spirituality... the circle is key to their understanding of the world and of life. We have turned linearity into the mode of being but... what if it's not.

The final essay, The Poet, almost awakened the poet within me! Nature speaks and the poets hear it. I have to admit, I've never been a great fan of poetry. I just remember Grade 8 poetry and trying to learn rhymes and metres and being completely frustrated with it. I wonder how many of us shut off our Inner Poet thanks to just such experience. Emerson has words of hope for us: "The people fancy they hate poetry, and they are all poets and mystics". Whhhaaaattt??? Gotta sit with that one for a bit.

Love Emerson... love, love, love him... I feel hope reading his words. I feel inspiration. I feel validation and want to share my own experience. What a thought

Next Book

A Complicated Kindness

Miriam Toews - 2007