TRUST THYSELF!! EVERY HEART VIBRATES TO THAT IRON STRING

• By: Louis Ochiel
• Date: August 15, 2023

Emerson wrote, "there is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."

"Trust thyself! Every heart vibrates to that iron string." There is a bit of advice. That a person would do well to reflect upon every morning of his life. No one can even estimate the number of people who live nervous, anxious, unhappy lives because they daily attempt the impossible. Which is to be like someone else. There are people who don’t realize the truth of Emerson's words that ,”envy is ignorance, that imitation is suicide!” He must have used the word suicide because we have to kill that which is natural in ourselves when we attempt to be like someone else.

They need to recognize the truth also that the power that resides in them is new in nature. That it has never appeared before in just that way on earth. That if they learn about and develop their own powers, they’ll have no need of envy or imitation. Envy is ignorance because it means a person is ignorant of his own powers and abilities. His one of a kind natural talent. He’s never looked within himself for his own road to greatness but instead, seeks it in the lives of others and when he fails to succeed as do those he envies, as fail he must because he can’t possibly be exactly like them, his image of himself shrinks. Not understanding that he is unlike those he envies, he doesn’t realize that this simple fact lies at the bottom of his failure nor does he understand that he can be as successful as anyone on earth if he will build upon that power that resides in him.

As Emerson put it, “the power which resides in him is new in nature and none but he knows what that is which he can do nor does he know until he’s tried. This is why a parent is off base when he says to a child “why aren’t you like so and so, like a brother or some model child?” Look what he is doing. The parent doesn’t understand that it’s a human impossibility for the child to be like so and so and to do what he does in the same way.

Instead the parent would be wise to say, “don’t worry about so and so, he’s found his strength and he’s building on it. You have a strength of your own and when you find it, you can build just as high.

"Trust thyself! Every heart vibrates to that iron string." When a person finds himself, when he stops imitating and envying others, there’s something in his nature that says to him, “this is it, you’ve found your road at last.” Every person is born to be a star at something, the purpose of his or her life is to discover it and then to spend his or her years building upon that plot of ground. It was given to him and to her to till!