Re Ralph Waldo Emerson

FFRF News Releases | Freethought Radio | Media Coverage/FFRF in the News Freethought of the Day | From the Headlines

Freethought of the Day Ralph Waldo Emerson May 25 On this date in 1803, Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston.   Educated at Harvard and the Cambridge Divinity School, he became  a Unitarian minister in 1826 at the Second Church Unitarian. The  congregation, with Christian overtones, issued communion,  something Emerson refused to do. "Really, it is beyond my comprehension,"  Emerson once said, when asked by a seminary professor whether he  believed in God. (Quoted in 2,000 Years of Freethought edited by  Jim Haught.) By 1832, after the untimely death of his first wife,  Emerson cut loose from Unitarianism. During a year-long trip to  Europe, Emerson became acquainted with such intelligentsia as  British writer Thomas Carlyle, and poets Wordsworth and Coleridge.  He returned to the United States in 1833, to a life as poet, writer and  lecturer. Emerson inspired Transcendentalism, although never  adopting the label himself. He rejected traditional ideas of deity in  favor of an "Over-Soul" or "Form of Good," ideas which were  considered highly heretical. His books include Nature (1836), The  American Scholar (1837), Divinity School Address (1838), Essays, 2 vol.  (1841, 1844), Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849), and three volumes  of poetry. Margaret Fuller became one of his "disciples," as did   Henry David Thoreau. The best of Emerson's rather wordy writing survives as epigrams, such  as the famous: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,   adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Other one-  (and two-) liners include: "As men's prayers are a disease of the will,  so are their creeds a disease of the intellect" (Self-Reliance, 1841). "The most tedious of all discourses are on the subject of the Supreme Being"  (Journal, 1836). "The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches,  gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the blowing  clover and the falling rain" (Address to Harvard Divinity College, July 15,  1838). He demolished the rightwing hypocrites of his era in his essay  "Worship": ". . . the louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted  our spoons" (Conduct of Life, 1860). "I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to  learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or  mastery without apprenticeship" (Self-Reliance). "The first and last lesson  of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not  seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature" (English Traits , 1856).  "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and  of the merchants a merchant." (Civilization, 1862). D. 1882. “The dull pray; the geniuses are light mockers.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Men (1850)

Movin' Stuff Around

 

 Do you know what people are about?
I'll tell you what people about
They're all about movin' stuff around
Underneath all that complicated
        technology, psychology, sociology, and civilization
Up close, they're just about
        movin' stuff around

Now, I'm not talking about ants, and bees and termites
        that have exact reasons for movin' things around
Or squirrels 'n pack rats storing stuff to eat
Not even talking about those big oscar fish in tanks
        that move rocks around to claim territory
Nope, people are even worse than crows
        picking up shiny stuff to horde in their nests
        for no earthly reason

Now, people will go out and purchase stuff they can't afford
        can't eat, don't need, and won't use
They will spend weeks shopping for stuff, searching for stuff
         new stuff, old stuff, valuable stuff
        and chasing the thrill of buying bargain stuff
They’ll put all that out on layaway
        or pay with cash and credit cards
        or coupons and debit cards
Then they’ll bag it up, cart it home, open it up, try it on, plug it in     
        and see if it works
They will arrange it, rearrange it, and arrange it again
They’ll push it over here and drag it over there
        or try to find some other place
Any other place
Then they’ll stack it up, hang it up, pile it up, put it up
        store it in a nook or hang it on a hook
Just so they can collect even more valuable stuff!
Of course, they'll see more, find more, and buy more
They’ll work another job so they can get more
And they'll even buy bigger homes than they can afford
Just so they can have all that stuff


Hey, whatcha’ got there?  Well, that there’s a genuine 1956
       Chevy four barrel carburetor
You bet,  like new
That there’s a real keeper
Never know when you’re gonna’ need something like that

Now don’t touch that little red propeller hat there on the coffee table 
That’s part of my Beany and Cecil collection
Oh, I just loved Beany and Cecil when I was growing up   Didn’t you?

Look here
I’ve just got to show you my great grandmother Edna’s wonderful 1920’s button collection
It’s worth some real money nowadays


Well, finally they'll try to organize all that stuff
 They’ll count and catalog, match and improve
        try to keep it up to date
       restore it
       take it apart, fix it, modify it
       redesign it, follow the trends
 And after that, they're forever cleaning it, washing it, dusting it off
       shining it, and, in the end
       spending hard earned money to insure it to just keep it safe
At last, they'll stand back and admire it, tire of it, retire it
       and then downright just  forget it
Because they’re off to the store to buy new stuff!

Well, pretty soon it gets to be too much for everybody
They'll have to take all that old stuff out
        and just get rid of it
So they'll box it up, wrap it up, tuck it away
        put it in the closet, throw it in a corner, shelve it, hoard it
        stuff it under the bed, store it in the laundry room
       move it to the garage, or hide it in the shed
Next, they'll just get busy and move all that old stuff out for good
Period!

They'll try to sell it, give it away, hand it down, throw it away
        drop it off, pitch it in the trash
        burn it, bury it, leave it on the roadside
And sometimes, they’ll just plain pick themselves up, and move away

Well now, don't let 'em tell you that life is all about
        culture, technology, science and civilization
It's just about people moving stuff around

c  10/07   Sandy HartmanEven in the most hackneyed, mundane things we do, there are profound surprises and lessons.   To hear the audio reading of this poem and see 

the slide shows, go to    www.eonwriter.com.