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"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Can't decide whether to post
It's lovely -- not at all not word-related -- but it's lovely
or:
Not at all word-related -- it's lovely -- but not at all word-related.
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wow, Whit ~ and here i've been avoiding the Board b/c it's so much chat and not enough about what i come here for ~ the glory of words... whether poetry, prose, parsing or peculiarities.
one famous emerson quote which i've never quite understood is "The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons". the meaning is obvious, but why spoons?
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maybe Emerson was alluding to Dickens, from Oliver Twist:
Mr. Bumble had re-counted the tea-spoons, re-weighed the sugar-tongs, made a closer inspection of the milk-pot, and ascertained to a nicety the exact condition of the furniture, down to the very horse- hair seats of the chairs; and had repeated each process full half-a-dozen times; before he began to think that it was time for Mrs. Corney to return. Thinking begets thinking; as there were no sounds of Mrs. Corney's approach, it occurred to Mr. Bumble that it would be an innocent and virtuous way of spending the time, if he were further to allay his curiosity by a cursory glance at the interior of Mrs. Corney's chest of drawers. -- but that doesn't really answer the question.
()
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Thank you, Sweet WO'N--I knew there had to be a reason I am not afraid to die!  I wonder if, when he wrote that, he knew how powerful it would become? Gives us all something to aspire to. About the spoons--my bet is that it relates to things I've read about light-fingered dinner guests stealing the silverware. Possibly spoons because they were least likely to be missed, or else least likely to poke holes or show an outline in the pocket of the thief?
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enthusiast
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It's lovely -- not at all not word-related -- but it's lovely
or:
Not at all word-related -- it's lovely -- but not at all word-related.
But it is AWAD-related -- this was the quote that came with one of our daily words (can't remember when, but I cut and pasted it into my quotes file at the time because I liked it so much)
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I have heard snide remarks about Emerson's preachments. Transcendentalism can get murky, but in moderation I can enjoy it. I'd be interested to hear some opinions as to why Thoreau seems to be more admired than Emerson.
Spoons of silver were so valuable they tempted thieves. I wonder how many people still use silver, now that stainless steel tableware is quite nicely crafted.
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Thanks for that, WO'N. It's a beautiful piece, in terms of both style and content. And a nice departure from all the "wink-wink nudge-nudge tee-hee" this board has been suffering lately.
Re: Dr. Bill's question, I'm not at all sure why Thoreau is more popular than Emerson. Is it because of his experience at Walden Pond? One of his dictums I particularly like as I begin to ease into geezerhood is "Simplify, simplify, simplify."
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old hand
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I wasn't "suffering" from wink-wink nudge-nudge meself. I rather enjoy a bit o' that from time to time. Do love this quote though....  [nudge-e][nudge-e]
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Let every one of us take caradea's sentiments to heart:
"I've been avoiding the Board b/c it's so much chat and not enough about what i come here for ~ the glory of words... whether poetry, prose, parsing or peculiarities."
She's luckier than I am - I've nowhere else to go.
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She's luckier than I am - I've nowhere else to go.Dr. Bill, you are a treasure here...and one of the main reasons I'm glad I found this place. My words will always be in ready supply for you, my friend.
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W'ON, you and I agree resoundingly. A toast to dr. bill! [sloshing -e]
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I've nowhere else to go.
Please don't. Absquatulate, I mean. Promise I'll try and do more wordie stuff.
Hev
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When I first joined, I was upset to notice how many participants stayed only a short time, with no clue as to reason for their leaving. I was concerned that part of it was rudeness of regular users towards newcomers.We had some very regrettable unhappiness about hurtful PMs very recently. But caradea has put into words something that has long concerned me. Many members read a lot, and must encounter interesting words and phrases or whole passages that would make posts the rest of us could enjoy. Dear Helen has spoken out eloquently in favor of this. WO'N is an outstanding exemplar, as above.
From my august position as most senile citizen and cussed curmudgeon, I entreat you to bring more posts from the multitude of books you read.
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Here's another lovely one I just found (hi, Max!):
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit...~Kahlil Gibran~
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Dear Bill, I'm one of the oppressively chatty people who has recently wandered in, though I do try to keep things in the proper subject area. I have a philosophy of how boards ought to work. That is, when you want to talk about something, you just bring it up. Sometimes people are not going to be interested in your proposed topic and sometimes they are. This bears strong resemblance to real life, because it is real life, or a piece of it. We are participants and not just observers, a board is a complex interactive environment and not just a word museum. (You being the most affable curmudgeon I have ever encountered, I trust you will not interpret this mild teasing as meanness.) I like to talk about words, but just as much I love to use them and see them used -- as in WON's slice of Emerson, but also in your responses and in those of others. There are lots of boards on the net. And for each of them, people come and people go. Interests change. People move on to new stages in their lives. Important demands compete for attention. I don't think comings and goings should make your community self-conscious. (The nastiness, which I've witnessed here but not experienced, is another issue. It might give some newcomers pause.) But to follow through on your suggestion to post what we have read, there's something I read this morning. (I'm not sure whether you had intended these should follow this thread or should start in a new one.) It's a quotation from a supplement to Capek's R.U.R. I found on the web. I don't recall reading any supplement in my copy, but I like this a lot, so I put it here for your amusement or vilification.
"Be these people either Conservatives or Socialists, Yellows or Reds,
the most important thing is -- and that is the point I want to stress --
that all of them are right in the plain and moral sense of the word. . . .
I ask whether it is not possible to see in the present social conflict
of the world an analogous struggle between two, three, five equally
serious verities and equally generous idealisms? I think it is possible,
and that is the most dramatic element in modern civilization, that a
human truth is opposed to another human truth no less human, ideal
against ideal, positive worth against worth no less positive, instead
of the struggle being as we are so often told, one between noble truth
and vile selfish error."
(R.U.R._ supplement, p.11) I cut and pasted from http://www.u.arizona.edu/~gmcmilla/talk.html. It reminds me of that phrase I heard once about the opposite of a great truth being another great truth. (Niels Bohr?) I won't go into detail about why this resonates with me, because that would be too chatty, but I really do like it a lot. k
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Dear FF: I say again: I like your attitude, and I enjoy your posts. They have always been very interesting, not just mere chat. Don't change. Please continue as before.
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Thank you, Dr. Bill.
I'll just keep on keeping on then.
k
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In a similar, although more somber vein, this from a contemporary of Emerson:
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
-- William Cullen Bryant
last stanza of Thanatopsis
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Intriguing, Jazzo...I perused a half-dozen websites on the matter, and it is, indeed, an ongoing mystery due to a lack of solid evidence in any direction. Here's the most comprehensive discussion on the discrepancy I could find. It seems that "Success" came to be generally attributed to Emerson, but there's a similar Robert Louis Stevenson piece, and then there's a an unknown poet, Bessie Anderson Stanley, whose great-grandaughter claims it was hers. Stanley has received more attribution for the work than Stevenson, it seems. And more extant evidence supports the theory of her authorship. http://darriendesign.com/serendipity/whodunit.htm
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I got this in an e-mail today. Thought of you guys.
SUCCESS:
At age 4 success is . . . . not wetting your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
At age 16 success is . . . having a drivers license.
At age 20 success is . . . having sex.
At age 35 success is . . . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.
At age 60 success is . . . having sex.
At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . . not wetting your pants.
There ya go.
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why spoons?
In those days, a host spread out the best his humble home could provide for festive occasions in remote regions seldom graced with spectacle. The best cutlery and plates and glasses and bowls. Oftimes the spoons were heavy with silver, and they were easier and safer to slip into a threadbare pocket than a knife.
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May I add an epigram attributed to Winston Churchill? "courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which quarantees all others."
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"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out aganist injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Don't know who said this...re: South Africa, 1966.
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If anyone is interested the above was spoken by RFK (I was reading his bio last night while cunctating) when he addressed a crowd on The Day of Affirmation in South Africa. His speech was met with that quiet that is meant for reverance, then of course, with a roar of applause. This was, as I remember fondly, (and sadly mourn the loss of RFK) a period of time where we began to begin to understand and celebrate our diversity as human beings. That he had the epididy.... to get up there and speak about this was amazing. Apparently this was a time in South Africa that was particularly oppressive...
Bill?.....
Ha cha cha...3 threads
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Dear mlc: I am a bit ambivalent about the Kennedys. Not because I read somewhere that etymologically, the name originally meant "ugly head". I admire their having chosen to be public servants instead of mere jetsetters. But all three were flawed enough to miss being truly admirable. It is hard to tell how much they owed their speech writers.
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We all owe a huge debt of gratitude somewhere to someone, we all are flawed, sigh. . .
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