The Turning of the Page

“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is a last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson—Self Reliance

Upon first reading those words, I had lots of questions. How does one know what is right and good? How should one live? What makes a thing right or wrong? Do we believe something is good, bad, right or wrong from what we read in holy books, or what preachers tell us, or from ecclesiastical tradition? Does it come from the general consensus of society? Is it simply a relative and arbitrary set of rules, customs, and mores that can be manipulated by mass media over time?

As I read Emerson, it isn’t any of the above. In his view, whatever is true and good is already there whether we bother to perceive it or not. But certainly Emerson would have contempt for anyone who thinks that the way to know what is good could be known by simply letting someone else dictate it to us. We have to look for it ourselves and perceive it on our own, and then learn to live according to our internal sense—our intuition—of what is there. And we have to trust our intuition in spite of all the flack and pressure to conform to what some book, some preacher, some social group or some tradition dictates. Emerson says in his essay on self-reliance: “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.” And later he adds: “For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure.” Perhaps there comes a time when the non-conformist whips back:


The Turning of the Page
March 4, 2008

I turn the page; I turn it good.
I turn the page; just like I should.
I read the words; I read them well.
I read the words; I read like hell.
I sit and think about the page.
And as I think I fill with rage!
Don’t mess with me; don’t bend my brain
Don’t preach at me; don’t threaten pain
Don’t tell me what I ought to do,
Or what to drink, or what to chew.
I think I know what works for me
I think I know how it should be.
So I write words; they are my own
I’ll strip the truth down to the bone!
It’s time for me to preach at you
And tell you off, and what to do!
Then turn THAT page, and turn it good!
And read the words, just like you should
And sit and think about that page!
Then maybe YOU will fill with rage.