#2 - Emerson

I've exhausted myself today, so we're already diving into quotes. This one is by Ralph Waldo Emerson, from an essay called "Experience." I've laid it out here in separate lines like a poem, because Emerson's language is poetry, usually.

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Let us treat the men and women well:

treat them as if they were real:

perhaps they are.

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Go back and read it one more time.

Though I haven't mentioned it yet, you ought to know that I'm heavily (and more or less safely) indoctrinated in all things J.D. Salinger. More to come on that. But for now I'll offer you a word we all know, and one we associate with Salinger (for better or for much, much worse) because of a certain New York-bred, red-hunting-cap-wearing teenager who unwittingly took on the onus of embodying the Voice of the Youth for generations to come – the word is phony.

I cling to this quote from Emerson because he pushes for something that I fear many of us – especially those of us who are willing Salinger devotees – at times have real difficulty putting into practice.

That is, to respect people.

And not just that, but to respect them when you disagree with them; when they can't seem to understand what you yourself understand; when, like most people, they haven't felt what you've felt and thought what you've thought.

Emerson prods us to refocus. Catch that eye-roll. Unclench your jaw. Treat them as if they were real. Listen – treat people as if they were real.

Perhaps they are.