said mr. emerson being the great ralph waldo. i heard something on npr this afternoon which had me thinking today was his 200th birthday. turns out it is not. aside from his being dead for 122 years, the other impediment to celebrating today is that his actual birth date is may 25th, 1803. so as is now evident, my planned birthday wishes are a bit late, or a bit early, depending on how you look at it. in any case, today has no particular relevance to the life of ralph waldo emerson. is that clear? ok.
I started reading emerson in highschool when my capacity for idealistic romanticism was not yet exceeded. i stole a book of his essays from my school’s library. why i’d know of his existence, or what brought me to search out one of his books are questions whose corresponding correct answers are lost to me. no clue. what led me then, on april 4th, 1991, to break the universal law of libraries the world over is easier to answer. for one, i was a highschool student and thus the world and all of it’s treasures were for me and me alone, no matter how many millions of years it had all waited around patiently for my arrival. (anyhow, 814 e. #43,274 emerson essays had only been withdrawn 13 times from the cornwall-on-the-hudson public library since 1969 and deserved better!) second, i absolutely loved his essays. at the time the ones that struck me hardest were love, friendship, art, and self reliance. i quoted these in more overwrought, unsolicited, teenage love letters than i care to remember. at the time, the thought of emerson’s hard won wisdom being re-written in blue pen ink on loose leaf, possibly folded into some bulging triangular football shape (i said “possibly”), then being skimmed over disinterestedly by a pair of mascara framed eyes darting within a cover-up caked face, did not strike me as at all comical. now of course i know better.
though i did not really enjoy his poetry, and still don’t, i enjoy re-reading the essays now and again. the ones i loved as a kid, not without nostalgia, and the others which i was not patient enough for then. fate, intellect, circles, experience, uses of great men, nature, culture, etc. only just recently a good friend of mine told me effusively about his discovery of emerson which made me happy and sent me re-reading yet again. all in all i must say i still love emerson. thoreau gets all the glory it seems with his great yawner walden, but for my money nobody beats emerson for that occasional transendentalist fix. and to put it plainly, the man makes a lot of sense. if you’re not familiar with his work, or just want to revisit it, there is plenty of good reading to be found on the internet. not to mention a whole bunch of ephemera. so, happy birthday, a year to late, or a few days too early, thanks for the great essays, and thanks for helping me sound clever and poetic to girls who could not have cared less.
