All Things Come Back to Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose words I so often turn to, wrote that "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." Although I have read certain of Emerson's essays so many times I know much of them by heart, and wrote my college thesis on Emerson's essays, and quote him more frequently than certain of my friends would like, I never really questioned this one much, and now I am thinking it over at last. I can't believe I am saying this--although it has happened before. On this, I am afraid, Ralph Waldo and I must ultimately disagree.

I know what he is saying because on one level, in one way, I agree with him. He means that without the courage of your convictions even in the face of all adversity, with the insecurities and self-doubts and constant questioning most of us engage in on a regular basis, you are not going to be the next Einstein; you are not going to make wild leaps of faith and imagination that will revolutionize the way the world works because you refuse to let go of them. I like this idea, and I like the fact that some people who were condemned and cursed or ignored for their crazy-sounding ideas, or art, or politics did prove to be geniuses in due time because they knew, in an unequivocal way, that what they thought was true.

But the problem is that as I get older, and my world expands, I meet people regularly who believe in their own private heart that what is true for them is true for all of us, and they are mistaken. And the older I get, the less sympathy I have for tolerance of ideas I find downright dangerous or hateful, and the more inclined I am to decide that life is to short to suffer fools gladly, or even willingly, when really, most of the people I love and respect don't believe dangerous or hateful things and don't believe that what they feel to be true is necessarily true for the rest of us.

Perhaps it is true of small and friendly writing blogs, as for dinner parties, that religion and politics should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. But it's a little late for that. If you've been reading, you have a decent idea where I stand. So let me just give you a brief example. I know that there are people who believe that abortion is murder. They believe it so passionately and deeply and wholeheartedly that they know it to be true--they think there should be strict laws against it, they think having one should be punishable by law. Does that make a person who believes this a genius? That is a rhetorical question.

In my opinion, the idea of making that decision for somebody else, of telling a girl, a child, who has been violently raped, that she must bear a child that would be the product of that rape, is evil. I believe this passionately and deeply and wholeheartedly and know it to be true. I abhor the idea of laws existing that would force that child to have a baby, and I will fight with all my might to ensure that that never happens in the world I live in, the world in which I am raising my girls. Does that make me a genius? No. See what I mean?

Again, I know what Emerson meant. But there is a fine line sometimes between genius and insanity, or even blind ignorance. I believe that Hitler thought what he was doing was the best thing for the world, for "all men," at least the ones he was allowing to survive. I am thinking of this tonight partly because of politics, of course, but also because of a friend of mine, a person I love and greatly admire, who has recently been condemned by someone he loves for something he believes because of what the other person believes just as strongly. There is no genius at play involved, just bigotry and ignorance. And fear.

I will end with another morsel of Emersonia, one that holds up for me still, under scrutiny and seems--now that I think about it--to contradict the opening quote. Emerson wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day."

I like to think this is about keeping an open heart and an open mind, about having the courage of your convictions and the sense to sense when the convictions need to be changed.