thinking

Thinking Out Loud ~ Do You Walk to Your Own Drummer?

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Whose Drummer are You Following?

In his work, Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, ““Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. . . .  Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness but must explore if it be goodness.” Pps. 114-115

NOTE: There are significant pressures to conform whether it be from TV, social media, or corporations seeking to profit from our conformity. When one chooses not to conform but to walk to her drummer, one’s eyes are opened to a new world, and she sees what the conformists cannot see. It takes courage to walk to one’s own drummer. When one finds that courage, life is instantly changed, and one knows she has discovered her path.

Thinking Out Loud ~ This is Your Time & Place

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You Are Where You Are for a Reason

In his work, Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. ” P. 112

NOTE: We are where we are in time and place. It is in this moment and in this place we find ourselves that we are to contribute our great gift to life. Trust the time, trust the place, open your eyes to the opportunities surrounding you. You’ll know exactly what to do when you listen to the stirrings of your heart.

Thinking Out Loud

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It Takes Courage to Follow Your Path

In his work, Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, ““There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.” P. 111

NOTE: We are who we are. What we do with who we are is up to us. It takes heaps of courage to recognize that whatever we do or become is up to us. We are free men and women. When we capitulate and envy or imitate others we sacrifice our freedom for an illusion. No singer, for example, knows when he begins his career whether he will be publicly successful. The singer knows in her heart that she must sing. Whatever our path, if we give it our best, we do not need the applause of others to know we are successful. Our hearts will know.

Thinking Out Loud

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Trust Your Instinct

In today’s post I begin sharing my thoughts as I read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, Self Reliance. Self Reliance can be downloaded for free at qutenbern.org under the titleEssays by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  According the American Poetry Foundation, “Emerson New was a England preacher, essayist, lecturer, poet, and philosopher—was one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the 19th century in the United States.”

In his work, Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “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.” P. 110

NOTE: Emerson encourages us to believe in the wisdom of our thoughts. It’s the intuitive sense that assesses the thought and instinctively knows that this thought is the right path. Once our instinct is screaming at us, it us up to us to act upon it. I recall, during my time in academia, searching for a methodology that would benefit one of my doctoral students. I stumbled (or was it serendipity) across a methodology called appreciative inquiry. It made all the difference for my student. And, it made all the difference for me. I made the methodology the central piece of all my research.

 

 

Thinking Out Loud

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Optimistic People are Hope-Filled People

In her work, Optimism, Helen Keller writes, ““Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope. . . . “Optimism is the harmony between man’s spirit and the spirit of God pronouncing His works good.” Pps. 47, 62

NOTE: When we link what we are doing to a higher purpose we are filled to overflowing with optimism. We know, that despite the challenges we face, the setbacks we encounter, that we will triumph in the end. I daily witness examples of this optimistic spirit. I see it at the gym where amputees exercise with the vigor and vitality of a healthy twenty year old. I see it in the faces and actions of ordinary people who experienced tragedy and keep on going believing they still have work to do. Optimistic people are hope-filled people.

Thinking Out Loud

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The Power of Optimism

In her work, Optimism, Helen Keller writes, “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.  . . . “the optimist believes, attempts, achieves. He stands always in the sunlight. Some day the wonderful, the inexpressible, arrives and shines upon him, and he is there to welcome it. His soul meets his own and beats a glad march to every new discovery, every fresh victory over difficulties, every addition to human knowledge and happiness.” Pps. 39, 40, 41.

NOTE: When we discard thoughts of the impossible, hate, and fear, and open our eyes and hearts to believing everything is possible, we have an optimistic heart. We have a heart overflowing with joy and love knowing that our path forward will shine a light in the darkness and light the way for others. We know that each day we will make a difference and the world will be better because we live to make each moment better.

Thinking Out Loud

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Choose to be Happy

In her work, Optimism, Helen Keller writes, ““If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.” P. 29

NOTE: Each day when we wake we are faced with a choice: Do I choose to believe the best about people and life; or, do I choose to believe the worst about people and life. For me, it’s been a no-brainer. Each morning I wake and announce out loud, ‘I am going to have a great day.’ Then I set myself off to prove I am right. I have many more wins in my column than losses. What we’re searching for, we usually find. Why not search for what is good? Why not believe it is out there waiting for you to pick it up? It is.

Thinking Out Loud

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Today’s Challenges Will Vanish

In her work, Optimism, Helen Keller writes, “If we compare our own time with the past, we find in modern statistics a solid foundation for a confident and buoyant world-optimism. Beneath the doubt, the unrest, the materialism, which surround us still glows and burns at the world’s best life a steadfast faith. To hear the pessimist, one would think civilization had bivouacked in the Middle Ages, and had not had marching orders since. He does not realize that the progress of evolution is not an uninterrupted march.”. P. 27

NOTE: Helen Keller’s essay, Optimism, was written in 1903 and published in 1904, well over a hundred years ago. Yet, in reading this passage it feels as if it is describing our current circumstances. The passage should give one hope that the  struggles of today will be conquered. We will grow stronger to face a new set of challenges in the future. Yet, we should have no doubt that the human spirit will survive and thrive and that good will ultimately prevail.

Thinking Out Loud

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Do Everything You Do as if it is a Great & Noble Pursuit

In her work, Optimism, Helen Keller writes, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks, as though they were great and noble. It is my service to think how I can best fulfill the demands that each day makes upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot.  . . . I love the good that others do; for their activity is an assurance that whether I can help or not, the true and good will stand sure. P. 15

\NOTE: There will only be a few of us in any generation who will win a Nobel Prize. Yet, those who win a Nobel Prize stand on the shoulders of the billions of people who work every day and perform tasks that will never receive any notoriety. Keller speaks of each of these unknown tasks as great and noble; Mother Teresa said it a bit differently, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Helen Keller and Mother Teresa give us words to live by, whatever we are doing, do it as if were, at the moment, the most important thing to do.

 

Thinking Out Loud

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Optimism Requires Engagement in Society

In her work, Optimism, Helen Keller discusses how she uses her optimism to transform the absence of good, “Thus my optimism is grounded in two worlds, myself and what is about me. I demand that the world be good, and lo, it obeys. I proclaim the world good, and facts range themselves to prove my proclamation overwhelmingly true. To what is good I open the doors of my being, and jealously shut them against what is bad. Such is the force of this beautiful and willful conviction, it carries itself in the face of all opposition. I am never discouraged by absence of good. I never can be argued into hopelessness. Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and  the large mind transcend.” Pp 12-13

NOTE: A true optimist doesn’t deny suffering or evil. The true optimist, like Helen Keller, has a firm belief that good will eventually triumph over evil, love will always win, and that hope fuels the ride into the future. An optimist is a transformative agent who seeks ways to remedy negative situations and turn them into positive outcomes. Being a true optimist requires hard work and involvement in life. Optimist you will transform our world. Never lose hope.

 

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