Nowadays, perhaps very little attention is given, except in
certain literature classes, to an American philosopher named Ralph Waldo
Emerson. And please understand that I
am in no way truly familiar with Emerson, except for one thing he wrote, that I
read many years ago and have never forgotten:
“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”.
Because when I read that, and thought about it, and truly
accepted it, I realized how radical and how transformative the statement
is. And ever since, through decades of
self-analysis and attempts at understanding myself and the world I inhabit, I
have tried to apply that statement to the choices and beliefs and
understandings I have acquired. And even
now, decades later, here I am, finding new applications for what I perceive as
a great truth.
For instance, as a traditionalist, I have a hard time
sometimes accepting the concept of gay marriage. I have no problem of acceptance of gays, male
or female, nor the concept of civil unions, for gays or anyone else. It’s just the concept of the actual marriage
ceremony that I struggle with, until I remind myself of what Emerson said. Because if I wish to have the relationship I
am blessed with, how can I then deny that to anyone else.
Now I am finding still another application of this
truism. There are those who are now
becoming public figures, who have declared their opposition to
contraception. But they are declaring
not only that they do not believe in the principle of contraception for
themselves, they are declaring that no one, absolutely no one should practice
contraception. This is simply a mirror
version of Emerson’s statement. For to
deny one’s self anything is a personal choice; to deny personal choice to everyone
else is dictatorship. It is the worst
possible path to denying freedom of choice to others. And in our country, denial of freedom to
others is truly a terrible thing. In our
Declaration of Independence are these glorious words written: “We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty ….”
No comments:
Post a Comment