Nature

I didn't know where to go  enjoy nature. Not because there were too few options, but altogether there were too many. The gorgeous beach, the serene hiking trails, the simplified park and the glowing stars at night were all options. But I decided to do something kind of obscure. I sat in my backyard.

There is a canyon in my backyard, that i have never been in. I have lived in the same house for almost six years and never taken a single moment to appreciate the land that I live on. I put on my uggs, a sweatshirt, sweatpants and a scarf and went down and sat in my canyon at 4:45 in the afternoon. All it took was a few minutes until I realized the truth in Emerson's depictions of nature. There were no distractions. The land around me was completely still, and there was no noise. 

I didn't really know how long I was going to have to sit there before some amazing thought or some description of the land came to me. So I took in the natural beauty around me and then realized there is no way to describe nature in all its glory. Even though it was just a canyon in my backyard there was no way I could have told someone an accurate and detailed experience of what I thought, or was experiencing. 

Emerson says that the only way you can be alone, is if you actually are completely alone with no other influences around you, and I was. I couldn't see my house, or hear anyone or anything. It was like I was in a different world. From this experience what I learned is that being in solitude is the only way to feel your true emotions and not suppress them. When you are completely alone in nature you can reflect on a lot of different things, and the thoughts you have are inspired by the scenery around you. The tree may cause you to think of one thing, that makes the connection to the plants around you, that tie into the gorgeous sky.

All in all, while sitting in silence in nature for two hours I can say that I learned a lot. I realized that I take this beautiful place that I live in for granted  and don't pay enough attention to the beautiful landscape that surrounds me. I also learned that the being alone in nature is the best way to think about things, you didn't know you were even suppressing in the back of your mind. And lastly, I came to the realization that nature is the most inspiring and thought provoking tool that is all around us, all of the time. 

Emersonian Friendship

I didn't think I was actually going to be able to take a whole day and make myself an Emersonian friend. And knowing that it was nearly impossible to achieve all of the aspects of the perfect friendship that Emerson has in mind, I choose two of the aspects and stuck to them. The first form of his ideal friend that I took was that I was honest. I was honest with my friends in everything. And the second thing I did was speak to them only in conversation- nothing more. Meaning no text messaging, phone calls, facebook ect. Since it is too hard to discuss the aspects of this day with everyone I applied it too, we are going to focus on "Betty."

Do you know how hard it is to be honest? ALL of the time? I arrived at school at my usual time, and pulled into my parking spot. One of my best friends, we will call her Betty, called my name so I walked over there. She asked me if I thought the boy she liked really liked her. I knew he didn't, he told me. Well, remembering that I had to be completely honest with her I shrugged and said, "I don't think so." She broke in to tears. Look what I had done... and I had been at school for all of 7 minutes. I consoled her and told her it would be okay, and she asked me if her makeup looked terrible after crying for 10 minutes. Her mascara and eyeliner were smuged, and she had a streak of blush running down her face. The thing I would have liked to say was, "No, you look gorgeous." Just to make her feel better. But, I had to be completely honest. "Um, its kinda all over the place, let me help." I said. She then went on a rant about how she was ugly and thats why the boy didn't like her. I had only been at school for 15 minutes. This whole Emerson friend thing didn't really seem to be working out...

Not only did I have to be completely honest to Betty, I couldn't text her. Normally, I would have texted her from advisory telling her it would be okay, and such but I couldn't do that this morning. According to Emerson, the only way for us to talk was in face to face conversation. I left my phone turned off in my locker all day. Throughout milkbreak and lunch I had different people come up to me and say, "Why didn't you respond to my text?" I just shrugged. This upset a few of my friends, but really outraged Betty, who was having a terrible day and thought on top of being painfully honest to her, was now ignoring her. 

Reflecting on it now, it really was important for me to take a day as an Emersonian friend. and after telling her later that night the purpose for my actions that day she forgave me. But the whole thing led us into an interesting discussion (via phone, which Emerson would not like). Why should she get offended for telling her the truth? Isn't that what best friends were for. And what is really so terrible about talking in person? It only further helps develop our friendship being face to face. So we decided, that we were always going to be honest to each other from then on. It's been a few days now, and it's actually not bad. I'm glad she can tell me, as my best friend what she really thinks, and she respects my truth in return. What Emerson taught me from all of this is that honesty, really is the best policy as well as that, when trying to develop deeper and more personal relationship, face to face conversation is the best way to go, and nothing less. 

Gifts

Emerson has a lot to say about gifts. Reading over this essay, entitled Gifts, a certain thought struck me. The first time I read through the essay I simply assumed Emerson was talking about tangible gifts. But after reading it through a second time I realized that he could also mean gifts that our intangible such as love and kindness, so that is something we must take into account when reading the Gifts essay.

According to Emerson gifts should be given without expecting anything in return. They should be given from the heart, out of your true “giving spirit”, not because they gave you a gift and you feel in debt to them.

This concept got me thinking…what did Emerson think about birthday gifts? In essence, birthday gifts sort of have to be given or else in today’s society you are seen as rude or stingy even. And most of the time, regardless of if the person you are giving the birthday gift to gave you one or not, you usually give birthday gifts! So I wonder what Emerson would think of this. It is a tradition, but it kind of breaks his ideal model of gift giving.

Anyways, back to how gifts should be giving. The only gifts that our given should be those that are a necessity. Emerson poses the question, what good is it to give a man that needs shoes a paint box.

We should also give gifts that represent a portion of ourselves. If we give someone a ring, than it is really giving that person the gift of the jeweler, not the gift of you own work. This idea also contradicts the theory of necessary gifts, because back to the first example, with the man that needed shoes, if you yourself aren’t a shoemaker than is it wrong to by him a pair of shoes, because they are the work of the shoemaker not of yourself? Perhaps what Emerson is saying is that unnecessary gifts, if given, should be of your own work, and with necessary gifts its allowable to purchase gifts that have been created because of the work of someone else.

Gifts should be received without emotion, because according to Emerson, some violence is done when you rejoice or grieve over a gift. If you grieve over a gift, it is insulting because the giver does not know your true spirit. And if you rejoice over a gift, you are showing that you love the gift more than the giver. This leaves us in a predicament because Emerson doesn’t really leave us with a correct way to receive gifts, he only instructs us not to grieve nor rejoice, which would leave us with no emotion, since all emotions stem from those two.

Emerson brings up interesting social commentary in his essay Gifts. I think the main point he is trying to get across here is that gifts should be given from the heart, and when received should be seen as the effort and thought behind the gift rather than the actual gift itself.

The best “Emersonian” gift I ever received was a rock with “better rock” written in sloppy kindergartener handwriting on it. My brother gave it to me when I was sick, and I told him it would be cool if there were a rock you could hold when you were sick that would make you better. Sure enough, with in 10 minutes, I had my own, unique, meaningful healing rock. The gift was hand-made, connective, and necessary, really fitting in Emerson’s guidelines. This silly little rock now, is something I cherish more than most any other store-bought gift I have ever received.

"Self-Reliance"

"What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think."

This quote is so simple, and straightforward. Emerson didn't use any elaborate words, or try and make it a mind twister that we have to analyze and come up with crazy parallels for it to make sense. And that is why I like this quote. And that is why I choose it. Out of all the knowledgeable and thought-provoking quotes he provided us with, this one is my favorite.

It seems so simple. To do what concerns you and not to worry what people think...but it is much easier said than done and I am almost 100 percent sure that anyone reading this can attest. We all strive to be that person that doesn't care what any one else is thinking, and who isn't worried about what they look like, or what they are doing, or what kind of impression they are leaving. But the truth is, I think for almost everyone out there, no matter how hard we try not to concern ourselves with what other people think, we're still worried about it.

I think Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the very few people, who wasn't concerned and caught up in what other people were thinking of him. He left behind hundreds of pages of his own thoughts, for other people to read and criticize, and honestly, I don't think he could care less of what other people thought about his writings. One of his quotes that perfectly exemplifies this is, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." Emerson had a passion. His passion was to write what he thought, and to end up getting some people that loved him, and also getting some that hated him and thought he was wrong. But he was happy with his work, and to him that was the only thing that mattered.

The concept of doing what I want, and not what other people want is thought-provoking to me. How many times in my life have i been truly proud of something i accomplished? Certainly more than I can count on one hand, but when I think back about those times, all those times when I was truly happy about what i had accomplished, they were times when i did something just for the sake of doing it, and doing it for me, and no body else.

So ultimately, I think thats what Emerson is trying to say. That we should only do what concerns us, not what concerns other people, and we should do it for our own happiness, not necessarily to please other people.