Ralph Waldo's Dilemma

Halley Geist Honors 7 Gibson 22 January 2016 CREED Paragraph Ralph Waldo Emerson once said something like, to be misunderstood is to be great. This aphorism can be used all around the world today because the only person that truly understands you, is you. “To be great is to be misunderstood.”

As the time on the clock ticks down to the very last seconds, dribbling down the court, weaving in an out of defenders, getting to the three point like as I am able to pull up and drain a three-pointer as the buzzer sounds and time expires. That day I was able to find someone in the stands watching me. He is not normally found, but I found him. Waldo, the “aha” moment, is someone everyone wants to find, but only a certain number of people succeed in doing so. Those who have trouble finding Waldo never take the chance to spot him for granted.

Hidden in a picture waiting to be found. That is if you can find him. He is a man wearing a white and red striped shirt, blue jeans, and a white and a red puff hat. His name, Waldo. The popular posters and books have asked society to find him.

Success has several meanings in life. Although not everyone’s the same, we all want the same thing. So, for my definition of success, I will use the definition from Dictionary.com, which is “the accomplishment of ones goal.” As a society, we hold individualism important and see goals as being personal.

Poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson was an extremely intelligent and insightful being in his time. His work has left such an impact on people all over the world for generations, and will most likely continue to do so for many more generations to come. Emerson’s philosophies and ideals have been examined and used for numerous debates, comparisons, contrasts, and perhaps his most examined work besides the notorious “Self-Reliance” would be “The American Scholar”. In the speech he gives his perspective on the American ideal. Decades later, a number of public figures have also incorporated their own take on the Amerian ideal into their speeches.

Author Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." Based on my experiences, I agree with Emerson's statement. If you have mastered a task, what is the point of sticking to a pattern? I believe that unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow because you have to go outside of your comfort zone to learn new things and keep yourself excited, becoming stagnant will bore and frustrate you, and you can discover new talents and abilities by going beyond what you are used to. My first reason for agreeing with Emerson's statement is that you have to go outside of your comfort zone to learn new things.

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous speech, “The American Scholar,” Emerson proposes the provocative argument that in order for one to be a great thinker and not just be a mere mocker of societies words, one can not worship nor be inspired by another one’s own words. As someone who loves and moreover finds purpose through music, reading as well as processing such an argument against what I believe in is quite disheartening. Whilst describing his ideal characteristics of a scholar as well as just the average joe, Emerson explains, “One must be an inventor to read well” (9 Emerson). Words alone can not do much, it takes an intelligent mind as well as an “inventor” to make something of these phrases presented to us. It takes a different kind of scholar

Soovya Nagin Ms. Giedd ENGRD 310 27, August, 2016 The Power of Critical Thinking “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”, by Ralph Waldo Emerson . This message allows us to better comprehend the effects of critical thinking and the role it plays in shaping our values. For instance, when we first read a passage from the New York Times we presume that since it’s a well-established firm that anything introduced to us would be of efficient and sincere quality.

An author named, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote; “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” If one decides to do the same thing over and over and never tries to get better, then they become stale and never grow better. Staying stale makes the world pass one by. Trying to go beyond what you have already mastered allows one to learn new things, open new opportunity’s, and allows for a better life. If one continues to stay in a rut doing the same thing over and over again they will learn nothing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Influence on the Second Great Awakening After the Second Great Awakening, the idea of change became popular and the idea of independence seeded itself into society. Reforms were developing, which supported ideas or unpopular opinions such as abolition of slavery, women’s rights, or equality. Literature also became a popular approach as a way to assert change into society. Many writers were challenging the idea of literature and instead using it as a way to spread their message even if it was not widely accepted by the public.