The Emerson Perspective

The insight in humanities was inspirational this week as we disgusted a man’s life that I didn’t really know. He started out as a normal minister and ended up as the greatest thinker of our time. His speeches are still studied to this day. He redefined how humanity was looked at. His name was Ralph Waldo Emerson. We discussed for almost an hour all of the wonderful things that this man had to say. As I said before it was sheer inspiration. It is amusing how Heavenly Father works sometimes. Everything that we talked about in class was something that I needed at that exact moment. However, time being as fickle as it is I must only talk about one of those inspired ideas. Emerson once said “Envy is ignorance; Imitation is suicide.” In lame man’s speech or at least how I understand it, to envy anything wither it be a friend’s accomplishments or what a person is wearing is to live in the ignorance of your potential.  To willingly live your life imitating those around you even if they are great thinkers or people in the world is to never know your true self, and in doing such you kill your very being.

            This really hit home with me. I have spent the majority of my life trying to be someone else. I wanted to shoot as well as my Papa. I wanted to read as clear as my Granny. To cook like my Aunt Ann, to be as smart as my Father, and to be as unwavering as my Mother in all I do and think. This, while being good things to inspire to, held me back from what my true potential was in this world. I am coming to a realization that the old rhyme “Monkey see, Monkey do” is truly a rhyme of warning. The question is why did I think this was correct? This is a harder thing to discover than one would believe. It is because that is how children learn. We imitate our parents and those older than us though out our live so that we can grow and be as they are. While this is a great thing when a child is learning how to speak or walk as an adult this truly is suicide.

            If we live in a state of constant imitation and envy we forfeit our self. Why is it then that we do this so much in our lives?  It is because that is how we were taught. As I said in the previous paragraph that is how we as children learned. However, my friends, it is time to shed the binky we hold in our minds, and dispose of the baby stroller and walk on our own understandings. We are individuals. We can think and we can do many great and marvelous works. Could Emerson have ever come up with this concept if he were still holding on to his Mother’s understandings?