In the Footsteps of Emerson

There is a certain kind of alienating majesty in space, a kind of overwhelming beauty in the silence and the vastness, a humbling hugeness that quiets the mind into darker reveries of thought, punctuated by a kind of ecstatic beauty in the bursts of brilliant lights, far off, like epiphanies within the darkness of thought. So often I forget these starry heavens above, and how often do I regret it. Caught up in the slow timelessness of this swirling vastness, I realize how easily peace flows from the transcendental. I make myself aware of the overarching stars, and at once I am changed, while the moment lasts. Standing on this spinning sphere, my eyes full of a distant light, all earthly things leave me in a kind of breathless cleansing. My animal passions seem then distant and empty. I feel a kind of inner bareness which is soon filled by awe. I become a moment in space; I am timeless, I see all: the notes of the Absolute resonate within me; I am a heartbeat or a half-note of infinity; I am a thought or a breath of God.

What is the earth to me, caught up in momentary sanity? I pray these experiences do not happen while I am participating in earthly games, at work, or school, or driving on the road. Vision endangers my life. And yet, what of it? What of the dismal rattling and grinding of these societal gears? What of the indignant bleating of these human sheep? Who dares stand upright amidst the stars, or who does not bend like a reed before Jove as he circles with his envoy moons? Who knows the muse, or has ever lain in her virgin bed? Who contends with Mars as he streaks, icy, through the skies? Filled with the thoughts of this heavenly host, what man may oppose me? Spinning near these lesser gods, what do I fear?

I walk in the street and, in a cowardly way, look at the other men and compare. I see the smiles of girls as they pass by, and I desire. How easily man becomes a slave to the Now! I call sanity that in which I compare not, desire not, indeed, forget the whole of myself amongst joys far greater. But this is a hard thing. How easy it is to give in to desires, to scrutinize myself in comparison, to return that sinful smile to the girl who teases my eyes. How easy it is to do nothing, to let the world catch me up in its nauseating swirl, to go where the currents direct me, to allow something else to take over and resign myself to being a nothing, a particle, a non-human. But this I cannot bear! Come, brothers and sisters, let us rise from this degrading slumber and awake into radiant glory! Let us step forward, unashamed, unabashed, to embrace the authentic self, to BE, to partake in that universal symphony that runs like lightning through the living souls of those whose eyes are opened to joy! Fear not the fleeting darkness, for Jove himself drives out shadows. Dread not the weary days of work and toil, but do them dutifully; they can never last: pay them your daily tribute and they shall be humored until they pass away. Worry not that you are small and weak, for the Absolute has furnished you with an overflowing love that spills out from awe-inspired gratitude. Come my friends, let us take each day as the last, rejoicing with each challenge, taking each hardship with new and strengthened resolve, until we have ascended past worry and pain and doubt; and in a rush of transcendental ecstasy, leave this world behind as we take to the stars…laughing all the way.