Self-Reliance

When I first read this passage from Ralph Waldo Emerson ‘s “Self-Reliance”

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. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

I remember feeling very attracted to the rebellious tone, the hyperbole and arrogance. I was a freshman at NYU and thought myself on the verge of some originality.  There’s nothing so ironic as a kid running around Greenwich Village in the 90’s declaring that imitation is suicide.  I believe at the time I was writing knock-off Walt Whitman poems. Sheesh!  But the meaning, as I took it then, was important, even if I could only dimly understand it as an emotional truth.

Now almost thirty years later, I see that I fundamentally misunderstood the message of this passage.  Though on the surface, this American Romantic might have been saying “think for yourself,: I see now that he meant “believe in yourself.” or have “Faith in yourself.”  And though he might have been critiquing a 19th century American notion that all things European were better, the sentiment is more personally valuable when you decide to succeed or fail enacting your own beliefs or faith.  Do you think it is better painted red or blue?   Should this scene end sooner or later?  Learn to listen to your own voice and boldly choose yourself.

For success at the expense of ourselves, is no victory, And failure, if it comes from the faith and authenticity of self,  can never be defeat.