Picture this: I am 16 years old attending my first English 101 class at Women's College, University of North Carolina. Our professor is Elizabeth Bowen, a small spritely silver-haired lady who instructs us to outline Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" as our initial assignment.
My roommate, Rita Robbins, and I turn in our work. When we return to class we see our outlines on the blackboard as being the only two acceptable examples. Now Rita is a bright girl from a good school in Brooklyn- no big deal for her.
I hailed from High Point High in North Carolina and had rarely outlined anything before. Furthermore, it was only through the grace of God that I graduated high school and went on to higher education. I was far more interested in daydreaming, drawing in my notebook or just gazing out of the window.
I shall always adore Elizabeth Bowen. She was the first person in my life to see potential in her artistic, dyslexic, insecure student. I also adored Emerson's ideas, which resonated at a level never before experienced and to which I was able to relate.
This morning I awoke with a biblical refrain running through my brain - "And be ye not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)
Always alert to messages bubbling to the surface of my mind upon awakening, I sensed a blog coming on. After coffee I hit the keyboard; mining the word "conformed" revealed pure gold! Digging into "The Quote Garden" yielded these nuggets:
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."Dr. Seuss
'Not all those who wander are lost."J.R.R. Tolkien
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."Mark Twain
"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."Herman Melville
"Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are."Quentin Crisp
"If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun."Katherine Hepburn
Then - AHA!!!
Others agree, including me.
"To thine own self be true. And it must follow as night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."The Bard
"Giving style to one's character - a great and rare art! It is exercised by those who see all the strengths and weaknesses of their own natures and then comprehend them in an artistic plan until everything appears as art and reason and even weakness delights the eye."Friedrich Nietzche
"What makes you think that human beings are sentient and aware? Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view."Michael Crichton's "The Lost World"
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it - unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."Buddha
Of course Ralph Waldo Emerson will have the last words - "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
So follow your own star...dance to your own drummer...Blaze Your Own Trail in 2012!