Self-Reliance and the River of Dreams

“Self-reliance” (1843), an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, can be a challenge to decipher. Four sentences leaped right off of page four at me and I now introduce them to you.

Why are we being instructed to read this along with Wattles’ The Science of Growing Rich (1910) at this juncture in the course?

It is not because the syllabus is trying to squeeze in all the minutiae of details that haven’t fit in anywhere else. Rather it is precisely because we are reviewing all that we have been learning and are continuing to make new connections with our thoughts and our lives in order to build in more deeply the changes that have been taking place.

Maybe I have not actually had the thoughts in this essay, but I have been close. I have visited the neighbourhood before so that when I read with an open mind I recognize the elements and the “Aha” moment comes. I want to be a self-reliant person, perhaps that is why so many of the ideas Emerson discusses are welcome to my consciousness.

But no doubt, this work is a discussion from various angles of the concept Mark and his team have hammered into us about the need to become independent thinkers, from the very first day, contrasted with the phrase “River of Dreams” taken from Billy Joel’s song by that name, which represents what “other” people think you should do.

Emerson writes, “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.” (Emerson 4) The life I should hold as my ideal is the one in which I focus on ALL that concerns ME, rather than what (I think) other people and society have for me to do or want me to do.

There is something very specific that only I can accomplish and no one can know what that is except for myself, and this is what my concern is to be, not the ideas that other people have.

Emerson is so committed to this as the standard for one’s life that he calls it out as a ‘rule’. He writes, “This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.” (Emerson 4)

What a powerful expression of the importance of this ideal. When we understand that concentrating on ALL that concerns ME is crucial to the difference between finding our greatness and being content with being ordinary.

Instead of flowing along in the River of Dreams, we can freely choose to work hard at the task of going against the current and developing our self-reliance, our independence, and growing confident in our independent thinking.

Emerson elaborates, “It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. ” (Emerson 4) Again, this is work. A boat can only hold its own against the current if it is anchored in something solid. Choosing to be self-reliant is not the easy course of action, particularly at the start.

Why is this true? Why do we always find those who think they know your duty better than you? But more importantly, how do we become the type of person who does not impose our opinion on others?

Since we have worked on this during our journey these months, we do at least have an inkling as to how to be different and also why we need to be different by not volunteering our opinions so as to give those around us the opportunity to develop their own.

Emerson concludes this section by putting into perspective how we are to manage our life with others as well as maintain what we gain in solitude.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after our own, but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. (Emerson 4)

We gain independence in solitude. We reach greatness when we possess and maintain that independence while still in a full life engaged with others.

It is in the short and long periods of solitude that we are able to become self-directed thinkers and are empowered to maintain that state throughout our “actual and intellectual life” (Emerson 4).

And so it is fitting, is it not, to study this essay and ponder the message as we are being encouraged to take the time for extended periods of silence. This is the reason we do silence: to develop independence.

What I have written is not in any sense a summary of “Self-Reliance”. Do not read my words and walk away believing you have a full understanding of Emerson’s thoughts on the matter. I implore you to read and think for yourself about what he has written, considering this as only the most superficial interaction!

See more about what I have learned in my Master Key Experience by clicking here.