I have been immersed lately in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, to whom I have not paid much attention before now. Like the young adult who finally realizes that his parents actually knew what they were talking about, I’ve been awakened to Emerson’s wisdom.

Before I go overboard, though, here is a quote that I like the best:

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

Living, Learning, and Experience

Life is a never-ending experience, a chain of events that we can either choose to endure or to enjoy. There is not much to be done if the choice is to endure. That choice in itself speaks of a life philosophy of victimhood, of being afloat on the sea of life, rudderless, becalmed, completely at the mercy of the fates.

I don’t buy into that.

So I choose to enjoy. This is, so you all will know, a relatively recent choice for me. Call me a slow learner, I suppose. I choose to enjoy, and to take positive lessons from my experiences, instead of negative, unempowering ones.

I also choose to examine what I think I’ve learned–because what I have thought I’ve learned up until now may not be the truth as I need it to be today.

What are some of the things I’ve learned? I’ve learned that:

• sometimes I’m the pigeon, sometimes I’m the statue. That’s what showers are for
• life is good days and bad; without the contrast, there would be no distinction
• never complain, never explain
• that people are basically good. Yes, there are bad apples, but they are rare, and they don’t spoil the whole bunch, because people rarely stay around bad apples long enough to be afflicted
• enthusiasm is contagious
• pessimism repels
• Pollyanna had it right
• worry is destructive–especially so because within the realm of attraction, what is intensely worried about tends to manifest
• I learn more from listening than from talking
• I should not to tell people my troubles. Of those I tell, half don’t care, and the other half are glad I have them…
• there is no spoon

A Ralph gem:

Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured,
From evils which never arrived!